Alliance of Champions
by Osorkon
Summary: This story follows on from my story Champions All. That story was a Buffy Angel Charmed crossover. This story brings Stargate SG1 into the mix. Stargate SG1 discover that there is more to witchcraft than broomsticks and pointy hats. Now Complete.
1. Magic

**Alliance of Champions**

_This story follows on from my story Champions All. That story was a Buffy Angel Charmed crossover. This story brings Stargate SG-1 into the mix._

_For the status of Buffy, Angel and Charmed please see the earlier story. This story starts a few months after the end of the previous story._

_For Stargate SG-1 this is set in a vague mid point in that series when we have SG-1 as Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c. General Hammond is still running things and Dr Janet Fraiser is alive. For the purposes of this story Colonel Maybourne is still a serving officer and a member of the NID._

_Note: I'm following Stargate convention (which seems to apply most but not all of the time) and ignoring any possible language differences._

Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction and not written for profit. No copyright infringement is intended. The characters are owned by their various authors and networks etc.

**Chapter One: Magic**

"Witches!" exclaimed General Hammond. "What do they mean witches?"

"From what we can gather they mean pretty well the same as us," said Daniel Jackson. "A woman or perhaps sometimes a man, who can do magic spells."

SG-1 were currently engaged in a debriefing session with General Hammond following their trip to Kallistien, a newly contacted planet. Kallistien was a human occupied planet but with a much smaller population than Earth. At first sight the Kallistien technological level seemed to be on a par with Earth of the mid nineteenth century. The recent visit of SG-1 however had shown that some of the apparent similarities were no more than skin deep.

"The Kallistians seem to be convinced that magic works," said Major Samantha Carter. "People who are believed to have magic talent..."

"Witches?" said General Hammond.

"Yes, witches," confirmed Sam Carter, "occupy an important position in their society."

"We didn't argue with them about it," said Colonel Jack O'Neill dryly. "It's probably an important part of their religion. If they call it magic and we call it science it doesn't really matter in the long run."

"I understood they were quite clear about the difference between magic and science," said Teal'c.

"So did I," said Daniel. "They were very interested in what Sam had to say to them about science and technology but they obviously didn't think she was a witch."

Sam glanced quickly at Jack O'Neill as if daring him to take the opportunity to make a sarcastic comment.

"Look, it's not my fault you're called Samantha," said Jack.

This puzzled Teal'c but he was used to cultural references which puzzled him. He resolved to ask Colonel O'Neill about it later.

Sam rolled her eyes up and turned back to General Hammond.

"They asked that we bring some of our witches with us next time," said Sam.

"Didn't you tell them we don't have witches on Earth?" asked General Hammond.

"Well we tried," said Jack. "Oh we tried. That's when things started to go wrong."

"They didn't believe us," said Sam. "It seems they've heard of the Tau'ri and what they've heard is that the Tau'ri have the strongest witches. Since we'd already introduced ourselves as Tau'ri we're automatically meant to have witches of our own. If we don't turn up with some of our witches on our next visit we might as well not turn up at all."

"Do you mean they've had other visitors through their Stargate?" asked General Hammond.

"They weren't too clear about that," said Daniel. "I don't think they've tried to use it themselves for a long time, maybe centuries. They seem to be suspicious of it."

"Do we need these people?" asked General Hammond. "From what you say they seem to be a long way behind us with their technology and trust seems to be an issue between us."

"I think they might be very useful," said Daniel. "From what they said they know about the Goa'uld. They seem to have freed themselves from the Goa'uld a long time ago."

"Do you know how they did it?" asked the General.

"Magic," replied Teal'c. "Or at least that is what they believe."

"Did you meet any of these witches?" asked the General thoughtfully. "Do you have any idea of the sort of things they can do or at least what the Kallistians think they can do?"

"We did ask," replied Jack. "But they were all away, probably dancing around a tree or something."

"They told us their witches were busy with a problem," explained Sam with a sigh and a disapproving glance at Jack. "But they wouldn't explain what it was. They want to talk to our witches about it."

"Do you have something in mind General?" asked Daniel.

"Yes," he replied. "Whilst we don't have witches as such we do know that some people are reputed to have special abilities such as ESP, precognition and so on. I'll make some inquiries. I know there have been a few special projects over the years. It may be we'll be able to come up with some special ability people who qualify under the Kallistien definition of witch."

"You mean people who can tell apples from oranges on cards in separate rooms, that sort of thing," said Jack sarcastically. "I'm sure that'll impress the Kallistians no end."

"Would these special ability people be the sort of people you would trust with the secret of the Stargate?" asked Teal'c. "If they are to visit Kallistien they will need to be trusted with this information."

"One step at a time," said General Hammond. "First let's see if we can come up with anybody. Then we'll see if we want to trust them."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"This is ridiculous," said Jack, not for the first time. "These people are wasting our time." Just as I knew they would all along he thought.

SG-1 had now spent two days at a Denver hotel interviewing potential witches. All of the people had been rated as having some sort of paranormal power in the archives of various government financed projects although none of them described themselves as witches. Unfortunately the 'paranormal powers' allegedly possessed by these people seemed to be of the sort that disappeared on close examination.

Jack O'Neill and his team were becoming familiar with such comments as "Well it usually works," or "I can't work in these conditions with so much scepticism about." These latter remarks were usually directed to Jack himself.

Two of the men had appeared to have something of a mind-reading ability but this proved to be no more than a skill at reading the reactions of those around them in order to come up with the right answers.

"It was worth a try," said Sam, "but I agree with you, we've been wasting our time." She looked at her watch. "It's getting late. I think we should wrap up," she added.

Teal'c entered the room. "There is one more person waiting," he said. "She said she couldn't get here before now."

"I thought we'd reached the end of the list?" said Daniel.

"Yes," said Sam Carter, "but there were a few no-shows."

"Bring her in," said Jack. "Let's get this done and get out of here."

Teal'c returned a few moments later with a young woman. She was very attractive with long dark hair. At Jack's gesture she took a seat facing Jack, Sam and Daniel. Teal'c remained behind her standing.

"Can we have your name please?" asked Sam, ready to mark the name off the list and look up the alleged special ability in the records in front of her.

"Let's deal without a name for the moment Major Carter," said the woman even though she had not yet been introduced to the team.

"Let's not," said Jack. "Tell us who you are or leave."

"But if I did that you wouldn't have the witches to help you with the little metal monsters," said the woman smiling, electrifying all four members of SG-1 with her comment.

"Are you a witch?" asked Daniel.

"No," said the woman. "Not technically, but I have been known to do a little magic."

"What exactly do you mean by little metal monsters?" asked Sam.

"You know exactly what I mean," said the woman. "I have The Sight and I know you'll be facing them again very soon."

"How soon?" asked Jack.

"More than a week, less than a month," replied the woman. "I can't say more than that."

"You need to come with us," said Jack. "We need to know how you found out about all this. We need to know just who you are and what you know."

"I can't go with you right now," said the woman standing up. "But this will all become clear to you before very much longer."

Jack made eye contact with Teal'c who was still standing behind the woman. Teal'c nodded to confirm that he would not allow the woman to leave the room.

"We don't mean you any harm," said Daniel. "We just..." Daniel broke off from what he was saying to stare open mouthed at the woman as she wandered towards the open window.

"What?" asked Sam turning to Daniel.

Suddenly the woman ran towards the window and leapt through. Since it was a third floor window the result should have been fatal. The members of SG-1 rushed over to the window expecting to see a broken body on the ground below. However nothing was there.

"What the hell just happened?" asked Jack.

"I do not think that woman was human," said Teal'c.

"Amen to that," said Daniel.

"What did you see Daniel?" asked Sam.

"It's what I didn't see," said Daniel who had started examining both sides of what looked to be an ordinary dressing table mirror. "She walked right past this mirror but she had no reflection."

"That's impossible," declared Jack. "It is impossible right?" he added to Sam hoping that as usual she had a theory to explain everything.

"Maybe she wasn't really here," suggested Sam. "Maybe she was some sort of a projection? That would explain the disappearance as well."

"Or maybe she's a vampire," suggested Teal'c drawing on his extensive knowledge of vampire films.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Gate Room of the SGC was quiet, just another day. The guard detail remained on alert but not especially so. SG-12 was expected back from its most recent mission and the Iris was opened in response to their signal. The familiar surge of an incoming wormhole washed out into the room and back. Now the new arrivals came through but it wasn't SG-12 that stepped through the gate.

Suddenly Replicators were running down the ramp. The Iris closed but it jammed on a number of Replicators still coming through. These Replicators and others already in the Gate Room began to work at destroying the Iris. By now the guard detail were on full alert with weapons firing at the Replicators as the alarm klaxon sounded. The backup guard detail ran into the Gate Room to join the fight.

Gunfire from the guards continued to destroy Replicators but the Iris was now damaged and other Replicators were able to squeeze through. The gunfire was mainly concentrated on the hole in the Iris but the Replicators continued to enlarge the hole at the same time as more and more of them squeezed through. By now Replicators were being reconstituted from the accumulated debris on the ramp in front of the Stargate.

More armed people rushed into the Gate Room and joined in the fight to destroy the Replicators but the humans continued to lose ground. Replicators were now on the walls and ceiling of the Gate Room as well as on the ramp coming from the Stargate.

The Iris was now nearly totally destroyed and Replicators flooded out of the Stargate. The first human casualties occurred as Replicators dropped from the ceiling onto the defenders.

"We've got to get out of here!" yelled a man as he saw his colleagues start to go down under the attack.

"No!" commanded another. "The door stays shut. We've got to gain time for the self-destruct to work."

The Replicators continued to swarm into the room, some of them working to open holes in the walls and door and gain access to the rest of the command centre. Others gradually submerged the last of the defenders. As a mass of Replicators surged out through the damaged doors the whole scene became bathed in bright light.

Phoebe Halliwell shuddered as she came to herself. That was awful. It was the worst vision she'd had since she'd seen the meteor impact. She needed to get home and speak to her sisters.

"Are you all right?" asked her boss who was stood in front of Phoebe's desk. "You've suddenly come over very pale."

"Um, no," said Phoebe. "I think it's something I ate," she added rubbing her stomach. Would you mind if I went home now? I really don't feel like continuing at the moment. I've done the column. Can we continue this discussion next week?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack O'Neill and Sam Carter had been called in to meet General Hammond with the rest of SG-1. "Any idea what this is about," asked Sam as they walked together towards the meeting room. "It's rather late for a meeting," she said looking at her watch.

"No idea," said Jack. "I hope we don't have to interview any more so-called witches, or rather any more idiots like the last lot." Over the past few days SG-1 had interviewed two more groups of reputedly special ability people but had come up with nobody with any demonstrable special ability. All this had served to confirm Jack in his view that there were no such people and everybody was wasting their time.

As Jack and Sam entered the room they saw another familiar face was present.

"Well, well, Harry Maybourne," said Jack. "There's never a bad day that can't get any worse."

"Don't be like that Jack," said Colonel Maybourne who had stood up when the other two officers had entered the room. He knew better than to offer a handshake. "We're all on the same side after all," he added sitting down again as Jack and Sam took their seats.

"Whatever side you're on count me as part of the opposition," said Jack folding his arms. Sam sat down beside him. Already present besides Colonel Maybourne were General Hammond, Daniel and Teal'c.

"Colonel Maybourne says he can help us with our search for special ability people," said General Hammond.

"Let's not be mealy mouthed about it," said Maybourne. "The word's out you want witches. We can help with that."

"Let me get this straight," said Daniel. "The NID has a witches department?"

"And this comes as a surprise to you?" said Jack to Daniel. "Do they come with their own pointy hats and broomsticks?" he added to Maybourne at the same time wondering exactly what Maybourne was up to this time.

"Now, now," said Maybourne. "You know as well as I do there are people out there who think of themselves as witches. We don't have any of them actually working for us of course but we do have records of a few and they may be what you're looking for."

"We're not simply looking for people who think they're witches," said General Hammond. "We have a need for a few people with special abilities who may be thought of as witches by some people we're dealing with."

"Yeah, I worked that out for myself," said Maybourne smiling. "You've got some natives you want to shaft."

"That's not what we do!" said Sam indignantly.

"It certainly isn't," said General Hammond equally indignant. "Colonel if you've come here to hand out insults you can leave now."

"I'm sorry sir," said Maybourne. "That was uncalled for of course. But I think we might be able to help you. The NID has access to some classified files from a number of old projects as well as a wide variety of information sources. We have a group of witches on the way here and we believe that they don't just think of themselves as witches but they have special abilities as well."

"What sort of special abilities?" asked Daniel.

"That I don't know," said Maybourne. "The information we've got is incomplete. It comes from various sources and none of them spell out what these people can do. No pun intended."

"How about we give them an audition," said Jack to General Hammond. "Anybody who can turn Maybourne into a toad gets the job."

"Why are you helping us?" Sam asked Maybourne. "Why do you think we'll trust anybody you produce?" Just what sort of characters do the NID have on their books she wondered? I wish we could tell him to take a hike but we've come up with nobody ourselves yet.

"They're not NID people," said Maybourne. "If any of them turn out to be what you want you can check them out yourself. As for why we're helping well, that's just it. We want to help. We want to be part of the Stargate programme."

"You want access to the Stargate," said General Hammond under no illusions about the NID. They would like nothing more than to control the Stargate. One way to do that might be to discredit the current Stargate Command in some way. He could think of a few ways that could be done by supplying unsuitable people to work with the SGC. He wished he had the option of telling the NID to get lost.

"You need us," said Maybourne who then held up his right hand. "But no pressure, that's up to you. When it comes down to it we all work for the same boss. We've been told to help and we're helping." If we can supply something they can't get hold of themselves they might have to admit they need us he thought. I wonder if these witches can really do anything? At least they'll probably drive Jack mad.

After Colonel Maybourne left, SG-1 remained in the room to talk to General Hammond.

"You don't trust him?" said Jack to the General. "This is Harry Maybourne. On the day he was born he was up to something."

"Maybe so," said the General. "But let's see who he comes up with first. We'll make a decision about whether they're suitable when we've seen them and checked them out. It'll certainly look better if we say somebody's unsuitable after we've seen them rather than rejecting them just because they come from the NID."

"Do we really need the Kallistians that badly Sir?" said Sam to General Hammond. "Even if we find out how they got rid of the Goa'uld it may not be anything we can use. It was probably no more than some sort of uprising that took the local Goa'uld by surprise."

"There is also what the vampire woman said," commented Teal'c. "She said we will need help from witches to deal with the Replicators."

"She's not a vampire for crying out loud," said Jack rolling his eyes up. "How many more times?" SG-1 had already had long discussions about their mystery woman. Teal'c was convinced she was a vampire, Jack was equally adamant that she wasn't because he was convinced that there was no such thing as a vampire. Sam had sided with Jack but Daniel professed to have an open mind on the subject, much to the frustration of Jack who blamed Daniel for Teal'c's refusal to be persuaded that vampires were entirely fictional.

"Whoever she is she knows about the Replicators," said Daniel. "We've got to take what she said seriously."

"It wouldn't surprise me to find out she's another part of Maybourne's scam," said Jack. "I bet he knows about the Replicators. The jump out of the window must have been set up in some way to make her seem mysterious."

"What about the mirror?" asked Daniel.

"It's probably some sort of projection like Carter said," replied Jack. "Or maybe a trick mirror. I don't know, but I do know there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything we saw."

Daniel pulled out his wallet and gave a ten dollar bill to Teal'c.

"What?" asked Jack. Nobody answered but Sam smiled.


	2. Kidnapped

**Chapter Two: Kidnapped**

Dawn Summers was mad, spitting mad. As she walked home from the Bronze she was oblivious to her surroundings, as she fumed over what had just happened. For the first time she had an idea of how Buffy had felt when she had been dumped by Angel or Riley or... In fact come to think of it Buffy had been dumped a good few times. Well if Michael thinks he'll be happy with Lizzy he's in for a big disappointment she thought. Serve him right too.

It was probably because so much time had passed without any trace of vampire or demonic activity in Sunnydale that Dawn was so careless of her personal safety after dark. The result was nearly fatal because it was only at the last moment that she became aware of the figure quickly coming up behind her.

As Dawn turned, the vampire changed into vamp face. Although this would have scared most people witless, for an experienced potential slayer like Dawn it had the opposite effect. The instant Dawn saw that she was up against a vampire her mind cleared of all distractions and she knew what to do.

Expecting an easy kill the vampire was taken by surprise by the throw that Dawn executed on him. He was even more surprised to find that his intended victim was not running away screaming when he quickly bounced back to his feet.

The vampire had no chance to stop and think as Dawn immediately followed up with a head kick. She then threw a small bottle of holy water onto the vampire which broke and caused him to scream and stagger back with his chest steaming.

"I thought even idiot vampires like you knew better than to try to feed in the slayer's town," said Dawn who now stood holding a wooden stake in her right hand and a large crucifix in her left.

The vampire, who had been about to rush forward, stopped, suddenly thoughtful. He had heard about the vampire slayer and thought it to be no more than a bad joke. Now he wasn't so sure. As he hesitated Tara, with Willow in her arms arrived silently by orb behind him having been alerted by Dawn's pocket alarm.

"Freeze!" commanded Willow and the vampire and Dawn both froze. Willow immediately went over to Dawn and released her.

"Well there you are," said Dawn. "One vampire all ready for processing."

"Now you can put your plan into action," said Tara to Willow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"All done," said Kennedy as she walked into the main living room at Slayer HQ Sunnydale, formerly known as Castle Buffy. "I even swept up the dust afterwards."

"Good," replied Willow. "Hopefully we're back to a vampire free Sunnydale."

"Why didn't you want me in on the interrogation of the vamp?" asked Kennedy. "I know a few ways to make one of them talk."

"No need," replied Willow. "Anyway I didn't want you to get to know him, know him as a person. It's easier to stake an anonymous vampire. It becomes more difficult once you start to know the person he used to be."

"You don't know me very well do you," said Kennedy. "Wouldn't have made a difference to me. I've never had any trouble staking vamps."

"Maybe not," said Willow. "But I don't want to take any chances. I've seen it happen. Once you get to know somebody, however evil they've been or still are you start making excuses to yourself about why you shouldn't stake them yet."

"Oh," said Dawn. "You're talking about..."

"Moving swiftly along," said Willow. "We need to give all this information about vampire activity in LA to Cordy and Angel."

"I've got to pop over and see Cordy," said Tara. "I'll take it with me."

The vampire had been questioned under the influence of magic. Willow and Tara's project was to capture vampires whenever possible and before destroying them question them about where they came from and how they became vampires.

The vampire who turned a human being into another vampire was called the sire. The intention was to track back each vampire like a disease infection with a view to eliminating any other vampires connected to him including the sire.

The vampire just destroyed had been turned into a vampire in LA about six months before. The information would be turned over to Cordelia and Angel who would try to track down all of the contacts in their area and add the information they obtained to the accumulating vampire database as well as destroy any other vampires they found.

"Did you have to dust him?" asked Dawn. "Couldn't you give him a soul like you did for Angel, Darla and Drusilla?"

"Not really," explained Willow. "There's only a limited supply of Orbs of Thesulah so I need to keep the ones I have for special occasions."

"It has to be special occasions only Dawn," advised Tara. "Vampires with souls can still feed and some of them would. We've been lucky so far with the souled vampires but it would be very risky to overdo it."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"They're not all like Giles and Wesley are they?" said Faith to Buffy as the two slayers walked through LA International Airport. They had arrived from England shortly before and had a few hours to kill before their connection to Sunnydale.

"I couldn't understand half of what that guy Stevens was saying most of the time," replied Buffy. "Where did he come from?"

"Somewhere 'Oop North' I think," said Faith. "I think they all talk like that where he comes from. I don't think even Giles understood him when he really got excited."

"Giles would have been happier if he'd been talking in ancient Greek or Sumerian or something like that," said Buffy. "Hello."

The last comment was given to a young man who had walked towards them and stopped in front of them. He was a little over six foot tall and immaculately dressed in an expensive business suit. He was carrying a clipboard which he glanced at before directing his attention to Buffy.

"Miss Summers, Miss Buffy Summers?" asked the man.

"That would be me," said Buffy.

"If you'll come with me please," said the man who turned away and strode off the way he had come.

Buffy made to follow him but was pulled up short when Faith grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?" hissed Faith.

"He said..." began Buffy.

"I know what he said," replied Faith. "But who is he? If he wants to talk to us he can explain himself. Didn't your mother tell you not to go off with strange men?" Faith stopped and smiled as she looked at Buffy and remembered Buffy's previous relationships. She rolled her eyes. "Stupid question."

"Shut up," said Buffy who then immediately added in a much quieter voice with barely a movement of her lips, "We're being watched."

By now the man had realised that nobody was following him. He turned back towards Buffy and Faith as the two slayers tried not to be obvious about trying to spot whoever was watching them.

"Didn't you hear..." began the man in a very officious tone. Faith however gave him no chance to continue.

"And just who the hell are you?" she demanded in a loud voice. "Just what are you up to? What do you want?"

The man now looked embarrassed. "I, I'm Eric Saward. I work for Homeland Security. We need..."

"I suppose you have ID?" continued Faith aggressively.

The man fumbled his ID out of his pocket and showed it to the two women in front of him. They both made a show of examining it carefully whilst continuing to look around them but it might just as well have been a membership card for the Mickey Mouse Club for all it meant to them. They knew about Homeland Security of course but had no idea if the ID was genuine.

"We're meeting somebody," said Buffy. "We don't have the time. Give me a card and I'll be in touch."

"This is a matter of National Security," said Saward. "I must insist."

"You go," said Faith to Buffy whilst pulling out her cellphone. "I'll wait for you here. I've got a few calls to make anyway."

Buffy realised that Faith was up to something and decided to go along so she nodded and turned back to the Security agent.

"OK," she said. "Lead on, but this better not take long."

As Buffy walked away, following the agent, Faith completed her quick telephone conversation, put the cellphone away and followed along behind. All the time she had been on the phone Faith had scanned the area. She had successfully identified two watchers, two more suited men, both of whom had followed after Buffy and the agent.

Faith was pretty sure that there were no other watchers looking at her. For some reason everybody seemed interested in Buffy, nobody seemed to be interested in her. Nothing new there thought Faith sourly. Faith concluded that somebody or somebodies had a file on Buffy and maybe knew she was the Slayer. They didn't seem to have a file on Faith so they had ignored her.

As Faith followed along behind the watchers she saw them joined by two other men coming from the other direction. Buffy and the agent had now gone through a door into a private part of the building. As soon as they did so the followers quickly closed in.

There was a uniformed security guard on the door through which Buffy and the agent had passed. The two leading followers now showed that they were not on the same team as the Homeland Security agent as they quickly and efficiently knocked out the guard and carried his body through the door. The other two followers now took post to guard the door and prevent anybody unwelcome from following their colleagues.

Inside the door Buffy had followed agent Saward along a corridor and into an interview room. As she entered the room a buzzer sounded from her pocket.

"What's that?" asked Saward.

"Just my cellphone," replied Buffy who knew it was nothing of the sort. It was a head's up alarm from Faith. "Just a moment," she added and went to stand behind the door.

"What are you..." began Saward who was interrupted in what he was saying by two men coming into the room with guns in their hands.

Buffy moved quickly. She came up behind the second man and took him out with a punch. He fell to the floor unconscious. The first man turned only to be tackled by Saward from behind. Saward grabbed the gun hand and pointed it up towards the ceiling. Before this struggle could go any further Buffy stepped in and knocked out the other stranger.

Faith entered the room in a rush, cellphone in hand. "You got them, good, let's go," she said. "I got the other two but there may be more on the way. Our uh transport will be here in a minute."

"You can't leave," said Saward. "It isn't safe."

That's why we're leaving," said Buffy. As she said this she grabbed Saward and pushed him out the door. "If you're really Homeland Security you'll know where to find me," she added as she shut the door.

A very puzzled agent Saward now found himself standing alone in the corridor outside the interview room. After a few minutes he began to wonder what was going on. They said they were leaving but they're staying in that room he thought. What are they doing? Saward waited a few more minutes, tentatively tried the door and cautiously opened it. He looked inside and then walked into the room. The two strangers were still lying unconscious on the floor but the two women had disappeared.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dawn looked up from her book as an orb appeared in the main living room of Slayer HQ Sunnydale. It was Tara and she was alone. "I thought you were going to pick up Buffy and Faith," asked Dawn.

"I was," replied Tara. "But they weren't there. I need to speak to Willow and Kennedy."

Tara went to fetch Willow and Kennedy and when they were all gathered in the room with Dawn she explained what had happened at the Airport. Faith had explained to Tara by cellphone that she and Buffy needed an emergency pick up. However when Tara arrived at the designated point there was no trace of either slayer, just two men lying on the floor of the room.

"I know they were in that room," said Tara. "Because I keyed into the amulets they wear like I usually do. But when I orbed in they were gone, and they weren't nearby. They went somewhere suddenly but I don't know where. I can't locate them now."

"Maybe somebody else orbed them away?" suggested Dawn. "Another Whitelighter?"

"I thought of that," said Tara. "I checked and nobody else was in the area. Anyway I think I'd have known if there were any other Whitelighters nearby and I should still be able to locate them."

"I remember something about Darklighters," said Willow sounding worried. "Could they be involved?"

Tara shrugged. "I simply don't know, I hope not. Whatever happened it happened very quickly. I know they were there just before I arrived."

"What about those men on the floor?" asked Kennedy.

Tara looked a little guilty. "They were just unconscious so I left them that way. I uh, went through their pockets," she said and brought out two wallets and two sets of plastic cards. Kennedy immediately started to go through the wallets and cards.

"There were guns lying on the floor but I left them alone," said Tara.

"NID agents," said Kennedy. "That's a branch of National Security if I remember right."

"If the ID's are genuine," said Dawn.

"I'll start researching," said Willow taking the documents and cards from Kennedy.

"Me too," said Dawn.

At that moment Xander let himself in through the front door. He was accompanied by Anya and Amy.

"OK guys," said Xander. "We've got problems."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Has anybody seen Phoebe?" asked Piper as she approached the table where her sisters Prue and Paige were sitting. It was evening in P4, Piper's recently renamed club. Piper had in fact soon regretted the renaming in view of the long line of jokers asking if they had seen her P4 and similar remarks and was planning to change it again.

Both Prue and Paige shook their heads. "Were you expecting her?" asked Prue. "She's probably at home."

"On a Friday night!" scoffed Paige. "This is Phoebe we're talking about. She's probably got a date."

"I suppose," said Piper. "It's just that I wanted to talk to her about Leo's party next week."

"Don't worry," said Prue. "I'll make sure she doesn't forget to get him a present this time."

"Shhhh," said Paige nodding towards the approaching Leo. "Talk of the devil, or the angel, or whatever."

Leo kissed his wife on the cheek in greeting. As he did so he whispered loudly enough for all three sisters to hear. "Those two at the bar, at the end."

"The big guy in black and the blonde on his arm?" asked Prue. "What about them?"

"Vampires," said Leo. "They're probably here looking for their next meal."

"Not in my club they're not!" said Piper starting forward.

"Wait a minute," said Paige leaping up and grabbing Piper's arm to stop her going over to the vampires. "That blonde, don't you recognise her? That's Darla."

"You're right," said Leo. "I didn't look at her face."

Piper gave Leo a disapproving raised eyebrow look.

"I mean I was looking at her general demeanour," said Leo. "Um, that's to say..."

"We get the message Leo," said Paige. "Quit while you're ahead."

"Isn't she one of the good guys now?" asked Piper.

"Unless things have changed again," said Prue standing up. "Let's go talk to her."

It turned out that Darla had come to speak to the Charmed Ones and had met the other vampire Lucien outside, on his way into the club.

"Lucien here's a new vampire," said Darla. "He thought he'd be able to find somebody tasty to eat in a place like this."

Lucien looked at the faces of the women around him, all of whom seemed to know what a vampire was but none of whom seemed to be frightened of him. Suddenly he realised that he was in big trouble and made a dash for the rear exit.

Darla followed closely behind and pulled a stake out of her purse as she followed the other vampire into the alley outside. For a moment it looked as if the vampire would escape but he suddenly dissolved into dust as Darla's thrown stake hit him from behind.

Darla walked back to the rear exit from where the sisters and Leo had observed the staking. "Thanks for that," said Darla. "I've been trying to get him to go outside with me for the past ten minutes."

"So why did you want to see us?" asked Prue.

"Is there somewhere private we can talk?" replied Darla.

Piper had handed over to her duty manager and then joined her sisters, Leo and Darla in the back room of P4. Darla explained that she was passing on a message from Drusilla who had learned about an inter-world portal operated by the US military called the Stargate.

"And how did she learn this?" asked Piper.

"She's got second sight," replied Darla. "She's always had it, even before she became a vampire. It's a little clearer now she's not insane anymore but it usually only gives her a little bit of the picture."

"Tell us about it," said Paige. "It usually works that way for Phoebe as well. It's as if the guys in charge up there don't want to make it too easy for us."

"Let's hear what Darla has to say," said Prue. "Hopefully she'll get around to telling us how we're involved." Hopefully she really is still one of the good guys thought Prue. But I'm not going to trust her any more than I have to. Killing that other vampire was a mighty convenient way of stopping us being suspicious.

Darla explained how Drusilla had foreseen the Charmed Sisters fighting small metal creatures coming out of the Stargate portal, creatures that could destroy the world if unchecked.

"Even if broken up they put themselves together again," said Darla. "Dru says you have to turn them to dust otherwise you're just wasting your time. She says you guys will hear more about all this tomorrow when Phoebe contacts you, so be ready to move at a moment's notice," explained Darla.

"Phoebe!" asked Piper. "Where is Phoebe and is she alright?"

"Yes, she's alright," said Darla. "At least she'll be with you when you fight these things."

None of the sisters thought it a good ideal to just wait for Phoebe to call so they returned to the Halliwell Manor with Darla while Leo orbed away to try to find Phoebe. Shortly after the arrival of the women at the Manor Leo returned.

"So where is she Leo?" asked Paige.

"She's on a plane headed east," said Leo. "A military plane. She's asleep but she's OK. I couldn't pick her up without revealing myself and things didn't look desperate enough for me to risk that."

The sisters and Leo discussed what to do and decided not to attempt to retrieve Phoebe straightaway because from what Darla said Phoebe would be with them soon anyway and whatever Phoebe was doing might be necessary in order to find out more about what was going to happen.

"But I don't think we should just sit here doing nothing," said Prue. "We should be able to use our magic to find out exactly where that Stargate portal is."

By using a series of scrying spells and using as many maps as they could find the sisters were able to narrow down likely portal sites to only four. The strongest reading was one in Colorado, which was in fact exactly in the direction that Phoebe seemed to be going.

"Colorado Springs," said Leo looking at the map. "That's where the big military base at Cheyenne Mountain is. I bet that's where they've got this portal. They'll have maximum security on something like that. They'll have it way down in the lower levels."


	3. Hurly Burly

**Chapter Three: Hurly Burly**

"So why should I trust you?" asked Wesley. "Why should I trust anybody who has worked for Wolfram and Hart?"

"What have you got to lose?" asked Eve. "I'm just asking for protection, for a chance to change sides. I don't expect you to tell me all your deep dark secrets." She smiled. "Not yet anyway."

"So this isn't yet another plot by Wolfram and Hart?" replied Wesley. "Why am I having trouble believing you?" As he spoke Wesley folded his arms and leant back in his chair. He hadn't met Eve previously but he had spoken to Cordelia and Connor since Eve had asked him to meet her and he knew all about Eve working for Wolfram and Hart with Lilah Morgan.

"Don't you help people in trouble?" asked Eve. "Well I'm in trouble and it's all your fault, or at least the fault of your friends."

"How do you work that out?" asked Wesley, genuinely puzzled.

Eve ran her hand along the chain that she was wearing around her neck and held out the amulet that was attached to it, showing it to Wesley. "Remember this?" she asked. "I presume you were briefed all about it, all about Faith forcing it on me."

"I'm wearing one just like it," said Wesley pulling out his own Willow empowered amulet. "Or at least one that looks just like it," he added glancing from one to the other and back again.

Eve sighed and put the chain and amulet back inside her blouse. "It's the same," she said. "You can get one of your witch friends to check it out later. It's because of the amulet that I've been able to break with Wolfram and Hart. That's why I'm in trouble. If I didn't have this amulet I'd still be happily under their control. As it is I've got back my free will."

"That doesn't explain why you want to change sides," said Wesley. "Why don't you go back to your previous life? I presume you had one," he added sarcastically.

"You don't get it do you?" said Eve. "You can't really be that innocent?"

"Exactly what do you mean by that?" demanded Wesley. As he spoke his suspicions about Eve remained on high alert. Did she ask for me because she thinks I'm a soft touch he wondered.

"If you really think somebody would be allowed to just walk away from Wolfram and Hart, think again," replied Eve. "The only way I have any chance away from them is with you people. Send me away and you're sending me to my death, or worse. Believe me, I've seen it happen."

"Well you made the decision to work for them in the first place," said Wesley still suspicious.

"I don't think I did," said Eve. "I don't think I had any choice in the matter. Anyway there's another reason why you should help me."

"And that is?" said Wesley.

"I think I'm a slayer," said Eve.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The attack came without warning. One minute everything was quiet, the next a group of five black clad and masked gunmen stormed into the foyer of the Hotel. It was the middle of the morning and only Fred was on duty. Angel was sleeping in his room upstairs and the only other members of Angel Investigations on the premises were Wesley and Gunn. They were also upstairs in a room talking to Eve.

Fred immediately darted into the office and locked the door behind her. As she did so she sounded the alarm. She now picked up the phone to speak to Angel. Meanwhile she heard battering on the door of the office.

Things were already going wrong for the team of attackers. One of them had fired at Fred as soon as he entered the hotel to stop her from raising the alarm only to find that his gun didn't work. He assumed that there was some sort of mechanical fault. He and his comrades didn't yet know that the hotel had been made subject to a magic protection spell which prevented guns from working and explosives from going off.

The door to the office did not look particularly robust but it too had magical protection. Without a mage to help them the team would not be able to break down the door. They didn't yet know they were wasting their time in trying.

After an examination of the security monitors and a quick exchange of information between Fred, Angel, Wesley and Gunn on the phone Angel and Gunn headed downstairs to deal with the intruders. Wesley remained with Eve who it was thought might be the target of what was probably a Wolfram and Hart attack.

With their weapons useless the team of intruders were swiftly handled by Angel and Gunn despite their high level martial arts training. By the time they realised that all of their weapons were useless two of them were already down to the attacks of Angel and Gunn.

The remaining attackers were soon knocked unconscious. All five were disarmed and tied up ready to be turned over to the police later. Although none of the attackers, after they woke up would say anything it was assumed that they worked for Wolfram and Hart.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That was ridiculous," said Wesley after everybody gathered to compare notes afterwards. "Did Wolfram and Hart really think an attack like that would succeed? No magic users, no demons, just a group of soldier boys. I almost feel insulted." What's Lilah up to now he thought? She knows better than this.

"Maybe it was some underling who doesn't know us very well," suggested Fred, "or maybe it's meant to lull us into a false of security before the real attack."

"Perhaps it's nothing to do with Wolfram and Hart," said Gunn. "They're not the only players in town."

"Or maybe it's a trick to make us think they want Eve back when all they're really doing is trying to make us trust her," said Angel thoughtfully. "It's an old trick. Try very hard, but not too hard to get somebody back when really you want them to stay right where they are."

"You're right," said Eve. "That's exactly what that was, a trick to try to get you to trust me. I worked it out with Lilah. The plan was for me to defect to you, and for Wolfram and Hart to try to get me back but fail. This puts me in deeper with you guys on the grounds that you have to keep me around to protect me."

"So why are you telling us this?" asked Gunn. "Why shouldn't we throw you out right now?"

"Because I really am defecting to you," said Eve. "I'm double crossing Lilah and Wolfram and Hart. I only pretended to go along with them. It's how I've stayed alive since I got the amulet. If I'd simply walked out I'd be dead by now, if I was very lucky. As it was I think I made them suspicious by going AWOL for a few days after I got the amulet. That's why I've waited all this time before coming to you."

"Why didn't you tell us all this before the attack?" asked Angel suspiciously.

"Because she wanted to see our defences," suggested Wesley. "See how we coped." Well that failed he thought. Wesley had stayed in the room with Eve who had seen nothing of how the attackers had been disabled.

"If you couldn't cope with an attack like that you're not the people to help me," said Eve.

"How come you've still got Willow's amulet then?" asked Fred. "I don't see Wolfram and Hart being happy for you to keep working for them while you have that."

"If they knew about it they wouldn't," said Eve. "But Lilah wants to keep hers so she hasn't told anybody else about them."

"And why exactly does Lilah want you on the inside with us?" asked Angel who quite clearly did not trust Eve at all.

"Oh come on," said Eve. "Take your pick. She wants to know what you know. She wants to be able to stop you doing anything she doesn't like. She wants to feed you false information. If she's got something more specific in mind she didn't tell me. Need to know and all that. At this stage she just wants somebody near to you she can take advantage sometime in the future."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Later after Eve had been secured in an upstairs room, with suitable safeguards the gang discussed what to do.

"How do we know she's telling us the truth?" asked Fred. "I really don't trust her."

"If Cordy were here she could do a truth spell," said Gunn. "When does she get back?" Cordelia was away visiting her mother and grandmother.

"She said she'd only be gone a few days," said Fred. "She should be back early next week."

"Anyway there are ways around truth spells," said Wesley, "if you know somebody's going to do one on you. All a truth spell can do is confirm you believe what you say at the time. I'm sure Wolfram and Hart would have made preparations to get round any truth spell we use. She could be primed to temporarily forget certain things."

Nobody suggested asking Lorne to read Eve. They knew that Wolfram and Hart knew all about Lorne. The example of Angelus had shown that there were ways around Lorne's talent and it would be foolish to assume that Wolfram and Hart didn't know what they were.

"Have you checked out what she said about being a slayer Wes?" asked Angel.

"Well she's definitely not a slayer," replied Wesley. "But I think she was probably a potential when she was younger. The trouble is a lot of records were destroyed when the old Council was blown up. I think Wolfram and Hart may have found a way to activate her and that's why she was able to go toe to toe with Faith."

"Whatever happens I want Eve out of here," said Angel. "I'd like to send her somewhere she'll be safe but where she can't betray us if that's what she wants to do."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"And what's to stop us calling the police as soon as we get the chance?" asked Phoebe. "Kidnapping's a federal offence I think."

"We will of course pay compensation," said Major Grant. "This is all a big misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding!" exclaimed another young woman. "We've been drugged and abducted. Where's the misunderstanding? We don't have to put up with this."

Phoebe had taken a cab home from work. Her next memory had been waking up on a plane on the way to who knows where. She assumed that she had been drugged. Several other women on the plane had had a similar experience.

The person delegated the task of placating the women was Major Susan Grant who was attached to the NID. At the moment she was silently cursing the idiots who had kidnapped the women rather than trying to recruit them legally.

Major Grant knew why it had happened. Somebody had decided that failure was very much not good for their career in the NID and he was probably right. He had been ordered to produce witches and had taken a decision not to risk being rejected. Maybe he'd already been rejected by some of the witches on his list. He had done his job and it was now somebody else's problem.

"Why us?" asked Phoebe.

"And how much compensation?" asked one of the other women.

Major Grant explained that the government had an important project which required input from those with special skills and abilities. The women were amongst those who they believed might have such abilities as it was believed that they all practiced as witches.

"The government's recruiting witches!" said another woman. "I don't believe it."

"I think the term witches is what's caused the confusion here." said Major Grant. "For some reason the people instructed to contact you thought you were some sort of a threat. That's very wrong. We simply need your help. If you're not able to help us, or you don't want to help your country we'll supply transport to take you home."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

General Hammond had at first decided to hold the meeting with the NID and their alleged witches at a hotel, in fact the same hotel where SG-1 had recently been carrying out their interviews. He was persuaded to change his mind by Jack O'Neill.

Jack was still convinced that the mystery woman who had jumped out of the hotel window, Teal'c's vampire, was part of an NID scam. "I bet they've got something set up to make these so called witches look good," he said. "They'll pull some sort of Flim-Flam. We'll think we're getting somebody special and it'll be completely bogus."

"The Colonel's right sir," Sam added. "We can control events in the SGC. Out there we might have all sorts of magician's tricks thrown at us by Colonel Maybourne and his people."

"If there's no such thing as witches, real witches, a good magician might be the next best thing." suggested Daniel.

"No," said General Hammond. "We're not going down that line. If we can't come up with the real thing then that's the way it'll have to be. These things have a way of coming back to bite you. We're not in this to scam anybody whatever Colonel Maybourne might think."

As they left the room Teal'c had tapped Daniel on the shoulder to ask about the difference between magicians and witches.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Now the time for the meeting had arrived and SG-1 were waiting in the meeting room with General Hammond for the NID party to arrive. Sergeant Mackay entered the room to announce their arrival.

Colonel Maybourne introduced Major Grant and the three young women who formed the rest of his party. He simply gave their first names: Mary, Elise and Phoebe. "I'll give you their full details if you decide to take them on," he added.

"That's if we decide we want to work with you," said Phoebe, one of the three women. "Coming here wasn't our idea. None of us are looking for a job."

The three women had been the only ones aboard the NID plane who had not insisted on being taken home immediately. Some of them denied being witches or any knowledge of witchcraft. The three left had agreed to come to the meeting but they had all been very sceptical about what they had been told and had remained so until they arrived at the Cheyenne Mountain Base when they had realised that there really was official backing for what was happening.

Arrival at a military base made Phoebe start wondering whether there was some connection to her vision of the little metal monsters and their battle with military personnel so she continued to play along and persuaded the other two witches to do the same.

"When shall we three meet again..." muttered Daniel who looked up to find everybody looking at him. Most of them got the reference. "Sorry, I was just thinking out loud. Three witches, is there something about the number three with you people?"

"Perhaps you'd better tell us what the hurly burly's all about," said Phoebe. "Us people are regular people, just like everybody else. If there's a good reason to help that's what we'll do but we need to know what this is all about first."

"First we need to know if you have the skills we need," said General Hammond. "We're dealing with some people who are comfortable dealing with what they call witches. I understand that you all, uh practice as witches. Exactly what is it you do?"

"We mostly sit around stirring big black cauldrons chanting bad poetry so we can turn princes into frogs," said Mary sarcastically.

"What is the point..." began Jack.

"Show them what you can do," said Major Grant. "What you showed me on the plane."

Elise did a short musical chant. The lights in the room gradually dimmed and went out. Mary clapped her hands and they came back on again. "That what you had in mind?" she asked.

"How do they do that?" Jack asked Sam.

"I don't know," said Sam. "Maybe one of them has some sort of interrupter that..."

"OK," said Phoebe standing up. "We can play this game all day. Us doing some little thing and you trying to come up with some sort of scientific explanation. Things are too serious for that so we'll cut to the chase. What I'm going to show you is to remain a secret and is not to be passed onto anybody else outside this room. If it is then all bets are off."

"What exactly are you going to do?" asked General Hammond as everybody, including the other witches looked curiously at Phoebe.

"First turn off all your recording equipment and give me your agreement to keep all this confidential," said Phoebe. "All of you," she added looking around the room at the members of SG-1 and the NID.

This is it thought Jack. This'll be what they've been rehearsing to persuade us they can do magic. Should be fun. I bet having a hot babe like Phoebe center stage is all part of the distraction. Classic conjurer's trick.

The General gave his agreement and the others nodded. He left the room briefly and then returned. "Right, there is no recording or surveillance equipment in operation. You can speak freely," he said and sat back down.

"Over to you," said Jack determined not to be fooled.

"First I need a cellphone," said Phoebe. "Mine was taken from me on the way here."

Daniel pulled his cellphone out and handed it over. "You can use this but I'm afraid it can't pick up a signal this far underground."

Phoebe took the cellphone and briefly smiled at Daniel. "It'll do," she said. "With a little magic."

Phoebe now did a short chant and then dialled the Halliwell Manor. To the surprise of everybody else she received a reply. Jack wasn't the only one to lean forward to try to hear if she really did have somebody on the other end of the line or whether it was a pretence.

Phoebe had turned away and had begun speaking quietly into the phone, explaining what she wanted to the person on the other end. "Look, trust me in this," Jack heard her say. "It's all to do with one of my visions. We need a big demonstration. We don't have the time to mess around."

A minute later Paige orbed into the room to the surprise of everybody present except Phoebe.

"This is my sister Paige," said Phoebe to everybody in the room. "Paige is also a witch and as you can see she has quite a lot of power of her own."

"You're right," said General Hammond. "That was a big demonstration but..."

"We're already familiar with teleportation devices," said Jack sounding very unimpressed.

"So I'm a device am I?" asked Paige, somewhat put out by this casual dismissal. "Can your devices do this? Papers!" she commanded holding her hands out towards Harry Maybourne. The papers that Maybourne was holding in his hands disappeared and reappeared in Paige's hands.

"Hey!" yelped Maybourne jumping up. "Give them back!" He rushed over to Paige but before he reached her she orbed away and reappeared on the other side of the room, in fact on the other side of the table where Maybourne couldn't easily get to her.

"Now this is getting more um, magical," said Daniel.

"Indeed," agreed Teal'c. "Perhaps we have found our witches."

"Your witches!" said Mary. "We're not..."

"Listen to this," interrupted Paige who had been reading Maybourne's papers. "'Phoebe Halliwell, youngest of three sisters.' Well you've got that wrong, Phoebe's older than me. 'Writes the 'Ask Phoebe' column in the San Francisco Bay Mirror and ..."

"That's you?" asked Sam Carter surprised. Phoebe smiled and nodded. Jack gave Sam a 'you don't read that sort of stuff do you?' look. Sam looked away.

"We can if necessary put pressure on her via her sisters to make sure she co-operates with us," continued Paige quoting from Maybourne's papers. Silence descended on the room as everybody glared at Harry Maybourne, even Major Grant.

"Let me see that," said Phoebe grabbing the papers from Paige. "Mary Crane: has a circle of friends including fiancé Michael Zimmer. Should be no difficulty in persuading her to do whatever is necessary. Elise Montgomery..."

Phoebe completed the reading of the papers. It was quite clear that the NID intended to blackmail the witches if necessary in order to get them to co-operate.

"I can assure you we knew nothing of this," said General Hammond. "You are all free to go. No pressure will be put on you to work with us, I will make absolutely sure of that." The General turned to Maybourne. "We'll talk about this later."

"OK," said Mary standing up. "Let's go."

"What about the compensation?" asked Elise.

"We can't just..." began Sam.

In fact everybody started talking at once. They were interrupted by the sound of the emergency alarm klaxon sounding, a sound that was familiar to Phoebe from her vision.

General Hammond and SG-1 rushed out of the room. As they left, Sam turned back to the witches and the NID members. "Stay here please. This may not be as serious as it sounds." Of course that immediately convinced everybody that something very serious indeed was going on.


	4. Under Attack

**Chapter Four: Under Attack**

Buffy woke up with a rush and sat up. She looked rapidly all around but all was quiet except for the breathing of Faith in the next bed. Buffy slowly got out of bed, walked over to the window and opened the drapes. The window however was blacked out. Paint or something had been used to cover the glass in order to make it impossible to see out. Buffy was tempted to break the window or force it open but for the moment decided not to.

As Buffy turned back away from the window she saw that Faith was now awake and getting up. "OK," said Faith. "Give me a clue. Where are we? What's going on?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," replied Buffy who was continuing to look around the room and noticing the very oddly styled furniture. Are we in an old part of Europe she wondered.

Buffy remembered the events leading up to the confrontation with the two armed men in the room at LA Airport. She remembered pushing the Homeland Security Agent out of the room and watching Faith press the button on her cellphone signalling for Tara to come and pick them up.

Events had then taken an unexpected turn. A yellow vertical circle had winked into existence in the middle of the room. It had immediately rushed towards Buffy and Faith. It was some sort of portal to elsewhere because after the circle had passed over them the two slayers had found themselves in a different room with the circle behind them.

Buffy remembered there being people in the room but her memory had not gone any further. Both slayers had been hit by something resembling an electrical discharge and had been knocked unconscious. Now they had woken up in what looked like a cheap hotel bedroom.

"Let's go exploring," said Faith. "We might be able to find whoever gave us those shots," she added ominously.

Faith tried the bedroom door. She was all prepared to force it open but was surprised to discover that it was not locked. Outside in the corridor was a tall, beefy armed guard who it seemed had just arrived at their door.

"You're awake, good," said the guard. "Come with me. They want all the witches downstairs."

"All the witches?" mouthed Buffy silently to Faith behind the guard's back as he walked away down the corridor, seemingly having no doubts that the two women would do exactly as they were told.

Faith shrugged but decided, like Buffy, to follow the guard to find out what was going on.

At the end of the corridor was the start of a wide back and forth flight of stairs going down. As they approached this staircase they began to hear noises coming from below: shouts, the sound of automatic gunfire, a scream and a loud boom that rattled the windows and was probably an explosion outside the building.

The guard rushed forward and looked down the stairwell only to be hit by an electric type blast from below and knocked down. As he fell onto the stairs a figure appeared running up the stairs whilst the noises of a battle downstairs continued.

"Cordy!" said Buffy as she recognised the figure running towards them.

"Buffy? Faith?" replied Cordelia. "We've got to get out of here, come on!"

Cordelia ran past the slayers and towards the other end of the corridor, Buffy and Faith followed. As they approached the door at the other end of the corridor it opened and two large men dressed in dark robes came through the doorway.

"Halt!" ordered the first man. Both men were carrying long poles which were presumably weapons because they both pointed the swollen ends of their poles towards the three women.

Buffy had no intention of stopping and went low, skidding into the two men and bringing them down like a bowling ball hitting skittles. Faith was right behind her and she delivered knock out blows to the two men. However the men were rather tougher than expected and the blows did not knock them out. It took a few moments longer and a few more slayer punches from Buffy and Faith before the men stayed down.

"Come on!" said Cordelia who was now in the doorway at the end of the corridor, a doorway which led to a back staircase. As she spoke a blast hit the ceiling above her, fired by one of a number of robed men who had appeared at the other end of the corridor and were now charging towards them.

Cordelia seemed to know where she was going, so Buffy and Faith followed her as she rushed upstairs.

"Why upstairs?" asked Buffy catching up to Cordelia.

"I'm heading for the roof," gasped Cordelia. "I think I can teleport us away from here but I want to have a look outside first. I don't want to land in the middle of the ocean."

"Stop!" said Faith. By now the women were two floors above their original level. Faith, who had picked up one of the pole weapons, now used it to smash through the blacked out window on the landing. "Will that do?" she asked as sunlight streamed in.

Cordelia went to the window and Faith continued to knock out broken pieces to make the view outside clearer.

"Hold tight!" said Cordelia holding out her arms. Buffy and Faith both put their arms around Cordelia and she began to chant.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So this NID lot have got something to do with Buffy and Faith disappearing," said Willow, "and this other lot..."

"Homeland Security," said Xander.

"Homeland Security, tried to kidnap Amy and Anya," completed Willow.

"But the NID guys were unconscious," said Kennedy. "They may not be the ones responsible for Buffy and Faith disappearing."

"But it might have been Buffy and Faith who knocked them out," said Dawn.

Tara had explained to Xander, Anya and Amy what she knew about the disappearance of Buffy and Faith. Xander, Amy and Anya had explained what had happened to them.

They had all three been at the Magic Box and Amy and Anya were getting ready to shut up for the day when two men in suits had walked into the shop. They had claimed to be from Homeland Security and had demanded that Amy and Anya come with them.

Xander had asked if they were making an arrest and if so he would call a lawyer. At this the two men had pulled out guns. Since the Magic Box had a full protection spell the witches and Xander knew that the guns wouldn't work. The witches had therefore refused to go with the agents and Xander had announced that he was calling the police.

One of the agents had then attempted to shoot Xander. When his gun didn't work his colleague had tried to use his gun but of course that didn't work either. Amy had then applied a sleep spell and the two men had fallen to the floor unconscious.

"So where are these men now?" asked Kennedy.

"We left them in the shop," said Amy. "They've probably woken up by now. We were gonna call you guys but we saw there were more of them outside so we went out the back way and came here."

"Wouldn't you have been safer staying there with the protection spell?" asked Willow.

"That's what I said," replied Anya. "If those men do anything to the shop..."

"You should have called me," said Tara.

"It's OK," said Amy. "I made sure they couldn't see us. We were in no danger."

"But you'd all better stay here tonight," said Dawn.

"I hope they're not real Homeland Security Agents," said Xander who turned to Anya. "Are you guys up to date with your taxes?"

"Taxes are the IRS," said Willow. "Totally different bunch. Much more evil."

"Of course they're not real government agents," said Dawn. "Government agents don't just go around shooting people."

"That depends on the government," said Anya. "I've known a few governments..."

Anya was interrupted in what she was about to say by the sounding of the security alarm indicating that a stranger had entered the grounds and had left the main path leading up to the house.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's OK," said Willow, "I will, thank you," and she shut the front door. Lying rat she thought and went into the surveillance room where Tara, Dawn, Xander, Kennedy, Anya and Amy were gathered.

The visitor had claimed to be a Homeland Security Agent. He was not one of the same men who had attempted to abduct Anya and Amy but Willow knew those same two men were waiting in a car outside.

Willow strongly doubted that the man and his friends were anything to do with Homeland Security or any other official organisation. She had only had a short time for research before the man had rung the bell but the ID did not look the way she thought it should. However as far as she could tell the NID ID's were genuine.

The agent said he had called to see Buffy to clear up a security matter. He said that Homeland Security, on checking their records had found that their records for Buffy leaving the country and returning didn't match.

Willow had realised that this might in fact be true because Buffy had sometimes been orbed by Tara or Jenny and sometimes had travelled normally. Must remember to tell everybody about that when I get the chance she had thought. These guys might be bogus but they might have access to real Homeland Security records.

As Willow walked away from closing the front door and into the main lounge she muttered to herself. "Must remember to speak to Giles sometime soon." She looked at her watch. Eight hours difference, he'll be asleep. I'll do it in the morning she thought.

Willow had told the agent that Buffy was out of town but had agreed to ask her to contact him when she returned home. Of course she had no intention of doing any such thing.

The agent had tried not to be obvious but to Willow it had seemed clear that he was checking out the security precautions in force at the house. The alarm had been set off a short time before by one of the other agents looking around the house from the outside before going back to his car and his colleagues in the street at the front of the building.

"What are they doing now?" asked Willow as she entered the surveillance room.

"They're still sat in the car outside," replied Kennedy who was sat at the control desk. "Your guy's joining them."

As they watched the monitor Willow's visitor got into a car already occupied by two other men. Minutes passed and the men remained in the car. There was no way that they could know they were being observed because precautions had been taken to conceal the various CCTV cameras.

"They seem to be just talking," said Xander.

"They're probably talking to the other three guys out back as well," said Dawn.

"He's telling the others about what he could see of our security arrangements," said Willow. "He had a good look." As she said this she smiled at Tara and took hold of her hand. Tara smiled back. Everybody in the room knew that there was no way the agent, or whoever he was, could have seen anything of their main security precautions.

"Does that mean they're coming in?" asked Amy.

"I hope so," said Willow. "We might then have a chance to find out what this is all about. They'll probably wait for a few hours until it's really quiet."

"After what happened in the Magic Box they're probably being cautious," said Xander. "Otherwise that guy would probably have pulled a gun on you," he added to Willow.

"It would have been the last thing he ever did," said Willow darkly, remembering all over again her reason for hating guns. Tara quickly put her arm around her partner.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Don't worry," said Willow. "They won't remember a thing."

All six of the agents had entered the house, three from the front and three from the back. Now all six were lying on the floor of the basement unconscious. They had all been made unconscious by Willow soon after entering the house. Now Willow proposed to wake them one at a time and use a truth spell to question them. Suddenly and unexpectedly two of the men were conscious and jumping to their feet.

"Now that shouldn't happen..." began Willow, puzzled rather than alarmed. She would have been seized by a large hand belonging to one of the agents had Tara not orbed her away just in time. Willow found herself in the surveillance room with Tara and Dawn who Tara had grabbed with her other hand before orbing. Anya and Amy were already there keeping an eye on things.

Back in the basement Kennedy and Xander were discovering that the two men were not simply capable of recovering from Willow's spell unexpectedly quickly but they were also quite formidable in combat.

As a man made to grab her Kennedy delivered the sort of punch which would have knocked out a heavyweight boxer. Her opponent, the size of a heavyweight boxer, was simply rocked back and then delivered his own blow to knock Kennedy across the room.

Xander found himself facing an opponent who was only slightly the smaller of the two 'agents'. The man knocked Xander aside and then went towards the pile of weapons on the table. Four of the men had been armed with guns but the two men who had awoken had possessed hand weapons of a type quite unfamiliar to anything seen before by any of the Scooby Gang.

Xander, although stunned realised that he couldn't let the man get hold of a weapon. He therefore leapt after the man and jumped on his back bringing both of them down in a heap onto the floor amongst the bodies of the other unconscious agents.

Meanwhile Kennedy had gotten the measure of her opponent and dealt with him as if he was as strong and formidable as a vampire, which he very nearly was. Even so the man was able to take considerable punishment before Kennedy was able to knock him out.

Meanwhile Tara orbed back into the room with Willow and Dawn. "Freeze!" commanded Willow, halting the other man just short of grabbing hold of one of the strange weapons. She then released Kennedy and Xander from the freeze.

Kennedy now went over to the frozen man still on his feet and knocked him down. Willow sprinkled some special dust onto all six of the agents to make sure that there was no second unexpected awakening.

Tara dealt with the minor cuts and bruises sustained by Xander and Kennedy before looking at the fallen agents to make sure that the men had not received any major injuries.

"Well whoever they are they certainly train their agents properly," said Kennedy. "That one was tougher than some vamps I've fought."

"I wonder if they really are agents?" said Dawn. "And what do they want?"

"They probably wanted to kidnap Willow," said Xander, "Just like they were after Amy and Anya. All witches see. They're some sort of witch kidnap squad."

"What's this mark on this man's forehead?" asked Tara looking up from her latest examination.

"There's another one," said Willow noticing a mark that had clearly been concealed by make-up but which was now partly visible. On close examination aided by wiping with a cloth it became clear that the two men who had woken up were each marked on the forehead with a sort of embossed tattoo.

"Anybody seen anything like it before?" asked Willow looking around the room. Everybody shook their heads.

"There's something else about them," said Tara completing her examinations and looking thoughtful. She pulled open the shirt of one of the men to reveal a cross scar on his belly.

"What's that?" asked Dawn. "It looks...eeuw."

"They've probably...," began Tara opening the shirt of the other man to reveal the identical scar. "Thought so."

"What do you think it is?" asked Xander.

"There's something inside them," said Tara who now had her hand on the belly of the second man. "Something living."

"Something that makes them stronger than usual?" asked Kennedy.

"Maybe," replied Tara. "I don't know. I've never heard of anything like it before."

"More research," said Dawn to Willow.

"More questions under the truth spell," replied Willow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

General Hammond and Sam rushed to the control room. Jack, Teal'c and Daniel made for the Gate Room. As they approached the Gate Room SG-1 met two technicians going the other way. "What's happening?" demanded Jack.

"Replicators," answered the female technician. "They've already damaged the Iris." With that she rushed off after her male colleague.

"We need weapons," said Teal'c darting into a side passage and pulling open a weapons closet. Jack, Teal'c and Daniel quickly armed themselves and rushed towards the Gate Room.

Up in the control room the General and Sam had just discovered the seriousness of the crisis. The damage to the Iris was now sufficiently large for a flow of Replicators to squeeze through.

"I thought that was impossible?" said General Hammond. "I didn't think they could damage the Iris from the other side"

"Nor did I," said Sam. "It should be impossible."

"We received the ID of SG-12," said Captain Mangin. "By the time we tried to shut the Iris it was too late, some of those things had already come through the Gate. They started to destroy the Iris pretty well straight away."

"Can you close the wormhole?" asked General Hammond.

"Not yet," said Sam who had taken over the main control chair. "I'm working on it. They've locked it somehow."

Down below, gunfire from the security teams was destroying the Replicators as they came through but they were reconstituting themselves from the debris on the ramp below. There were therefore more and more Replicators to aim at.

The remainder of SG1 had by now arrived in the Gate Room and on Jack's orders the entrance door was closed and secured. Despite the reinforcements the defenders seemed to be losing ground to the Replicators.

"I've got to get to the self-destruct," said General Hammond. "Captain, you come with me and everybody else arm yourselves. Major, you keep..."

"Wait," said Sam. "Look."

Down below everything had stopped, people, Replicators, everything. Everything that is except a group of four women and a man who had appeared in the Gate Room plus new Replicators who continued to come through the gate.

Suddenly the moving Replicators exploded. Small explosions only but sufficient to reduce the Replicators to dust and make it impossible for the remains to be reconstituted into new Replicators. Now the frozen Replicators exploded into dust as well.

The General and Sam didn't recognise the man but they recognised Phoebe and Paige as two of the four women in the gate room. The other two were not Mary and Elise but were new. Like Phoebe and Paige the other women were short of average height, had long dark hair and were stunningly beautiful.

One of the new women continued to wave her hands at new Replicators as they came through the Stargate and it seemed to be she who was turning them to dust. The other three women now gathered together and began chanting.

Suddenly the Stargate went black as it closed down, chopping the last moving Replicator in half. This then was also reduced to dust leaving no remaining Replicators.

General Hammond turned to Sam and raised his eyebrows in inquiry.

"It wasn't me," said Sam. "I didn't close it down. I think it was the uh, witches down there. They must have broken the connection somehow."


	5. Into the Woods

**Chapter Five: Into the Woods**

Rupert Giles put the phone down and leant back in his office chair. I really miss those days back in Sunnydale he thought. All I had to think about then was the end of the world on a regular basis. Now I've got quarterly reports, council meetings and all the internal politicking and backstabbing that seems unavoidable in any big organisation.

Giles's mind drifted to his most recent telephone chat with Willow when she had updated him about all the recent events on the other side of the ocean. Since special precautions were in place Giles and Willow or sometimes Giles and one of the other Scoobies were able to talk freely without fear of being recorded or overheard.

Giles was now trying to persuade himself not to simply take the first plane out and throw himself back into the adventurous life of the Scooby Gang and in particular try to find out what had happened to Buffy and Faith. He was worried but he knew he wouldn't do it. He was sorely tempted but he didn't know anybody in England he would trust to take over control of the New Council.

Yes, he had a lot of fine people coming through but it was early days yet and he had nobody who'd worked at the sharp end. Nobody who'd worked with a slayer and knew at first hand what it was like. He was determined that the New Council would never go the way of the old one. It would never again be staffed by ambitious career people who just regarded slayers as a means to an end. As far as he was concerned that meant keeping some sort of control himself for a good while yet.

In any event Giles knew that there was no going back. He and the others couldn't go back to their cosy little group centred around the local High School ever again. Everybody was older, they'd all grown up thank goodness even though there had been times when it looked likely that none of them would live that long.

One person who did have the experience and the contacts to take over running the New Council was of course Wesley thought Giles. He's come a long way since I first met him in Sunnydale. It's like he's a completely different person. It just shows what difference a little front line experience makes.

Perhaps that's what I should do with some of these eager trainees thought Giles. Give them some time in the field, some time to mature. I really should have a watcher permanently assigned in Sunnydale since the three slayers use that as their base. Giles made a mental note to do something about that before too much longer.

Giles had already asked Wesley to spend more time in England and had been refused. Wesley can see himself being bogged down in paper work the same as me thought Giles. He's due to get here tomorrow with this Eve and his two potentials. I must remember to sound him out again, you never know.

"Oh to hell with it" said Giles out loud as he stood up even though he was alone in his office. I'm going home he thought. I'm in charge. I don't have to work late every night. I won't do anybody any good if I work myself to death. In fact it was already late by the standards of most of the workers at the New Watchers Council HQ. Giles put on his jacket and made his way through the largely empty building and down to the basement car-park.

As Giles walked through the basement he didn't notice a large vertical yellow circle open in the air behind him. As if looking around, the circle remained stationary for a few seconds before starting to move. It was now following Giles. As Giles stopped by his car to get out his keys the circle rushed forward and flowed over him. The circle stopped. Now there was no Giles, just the circle. After a couple of seconds the circle winked out.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Trees, trees and more trees," said Faith as she returned. "Well sort of trees. But I found water."

Faith was referring to the woodland in which she, Buffy and Cordelia found themselves. The trees were definitely trees but of a sort that had never grown on Earth. The most obvious difference was the colour of the leaves, none of which were green and many of which were distinctly blue.

Cordelia had successfully teleported the three of them away from the building which was the scene of some sort of battle and taken them a considerable distance away into a wood. Cordelia had learned the teleportation spell from Willow. She had known it would be painful but she had thought that once clear of the building she would be able to call Tara for a healing.

It was only on arrival in the wood that the three women had realised that they were no longer on Earth. Cordelia had nevertheless tried to call Tara but unsuccessfully and she had then passed out. In the hours that had passed since then Buffy and Faith had taken turns in exploring their immediate surroundings.

"I'll give Cordy another hour," said Buffy looking at her watch. "If she's still asleep I'll carry her to the water. Still no signs of life?"

"Nah, just the endless trees," said Faith sitting down opposite Buffy. "I'll climb one in a minute, see if I can see anything. We're gonna need more than water before long."

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" said Cordelia waking up. She held both hands to her head. "It'll hurt a little she said. A little! Just wait 'til I see Willow again."

"Perhaps it hurts because you didn't have that stuff that Willow and Tara used," said Buffy remembering the teleportation spell that had been used against Glory, "or because you did it on your own."

"Maybe, maybe," muttered Cordelia half to herself. "We'll definitely have a little talk about it."

Cordelia carefully sat herself up and leaned back against a tree. Over the next few minutes, whilst trying to keep her head as still as possible she told the two slayers what had happened to her and they told her their story.

Cordelia had also been kidnapped by a yellow circle portal which had appeared in her room at her mother's house the night before when she was about to get ready for bed. From the description, she had been transported to the same room as Buffy and Faith and like them had been knocked unconscious by the discharge of some sort of energy weapon.

Faith had kept hold of the pole weapon that she had taken from one of the fallen robed men. Now she looked at it lying on the ground between them and wondered if it might be the very sort of weapon that had been used on them.

Like Buffy and Faith, Cordelia had been fetched from her room, a room that had also been occupied by another woman called Margaret, who had similarly been snatched by the yellow circle. Cordelia and Margaret had been taken downstairs about an hour before the battle began.

Cordelia and Margaret had met two other women downstairs. In the brief time they had to chat together they discovered that they were all witches and had all been kidnapped in much the same way.

"They think we're witches as well," said Faith. "That's what that security guard called us."

"So why do they want witches?" asked Buffy.

"Power," said Cordelia. "When I got to talk to one of the guys in charge he claimed to be a Government Agent. He never said anything about being on another world." Buffy and Faith looked at each other. They had already explained to Cordelia what had happened to them.

"They've found out some witches have real power and they want to control it," continued Cordelia.

"How?" asked Buffy.

"By controlling the witches," said Cordelia. "I didn't realise it at first but all the other women did exactly what they were told to do. I don't know if it's drugs, magic or something else but they're all under control."

"So why didn't it affect you?" asked Faith. "Are you too strong for them?"

"I'm still wearing one of Willow's amulets," said Cordelia. "The one that stops anybody else taking control of your free will. It's hidden by magic so they wouldn't even have seen it while I was unconscious."

"That explains why that guard just assumed we'd follow him," said Buffy. "They must have given us the same treatment. Since we're also wearing Willow's amulets..." Faith nodded. "We've got protection too."

"So if one lot are Government Agents who were they fighting?" asked Faith.

"Dunno," said Cordelia. "Somebody attacked but nobody told us who it was. When the fighting started we were all told to stay where we were. I decided not to and ran upstairs when nobody was looking."

"I can't see this is really an official Government operation," said Buffy. "Not unless it's somebody else's Government." But a nagging thought intruded: What about the Initiative? That started out as a proper Government operation and look how that ended up.

"Perhaps the other lot are the local natives and they don't like us being here?" suggested Faith.

"I don't like us being here," said Cordelia.

"We need a plan to get us home," said Buffy.

"Well I've got to get some more rest," said Cordelia with a deep sigh as she lay back down on the ground and closed her eyes. "Make sure that plan includes a nice meal and a bath."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If they hadn't found a wide path before it got completely dark they would have had to stop an hour ago and wait for daylight. Stumbling about in the woods during the day was bad enough but there's nothing darker than a wood at night thought Buffy. Or at least that was what she thought before the three moons came up and gave enough light to resemble a deeply overcast day.

Buffy could tell that Cordelia was really tired, she'd stopped complaining. They'd soon have to stop anyway to give her more rest but Buffy wanted to go on as long as possible in case there was a chance of finding somewhere to stay and something decent to eat. Those rabbit thingies that Faith had caught hadn't exactly been a feast.

Faith had experimented with the pole weapon, first of all using it to hit nearby trees. She had then graduated to aiming at small wildlife, which had raised objections from Cordelia.

"Don't you want to eat then?" was Faith's response which put an end to Cordelia's objections.

One to stun, two to kill seemed to be the way it worked but even so it was a cumbersome weapon for the untrained. It took a great deal of practice before Faith was able to stun three small animals. Having done the hunting and with Cordelia once again sleeping or pretending to sleep Faith had been successful in passing over the cooking duties to Buffy.

Earlier in the day Buffy had climbed one of the taller trees at the top of a hill to look for landmarks. She had been able to see that they were inside a large wood which, using the position of what she thought was the afternoon sun she assessed as stretching away West, North and East.

To the south Buffy had seen several columns of smoke and had concluded that they marked the site of the battle. She had been debating with herself whether to propose to the others that they head back in that direction when a large flying machine passed over the wood heading towards the smoke.

The massive flying machine was several times larger than the largest air liner on Earth and presumably had a considerable number of people aboard. It had been closely followed by a dozen smaller, individual flyers about the size of Air Force fighter planes.

There was no firing of weapons as far as Buffy could see, so the smaller flyers were presumably escort rather than opposition. As she continued to watch, the large machine had descended towards a landing point somewhere near to the smoke columns.

A conference between the three women had produced a unanimous decision to head in the opposite direction to the smoke and flying machines. If they found nothing to the north they would consider heading back south once Cordelia had recovered her full magic strength. They had therefore headed north as far as they were able, using the sun as a guide and helped by periodic sightings from tall trees.

As they continued their journey in the gloom to who knew where, Faith took the lead with Buffy helping Cordelia. Suddenly Faith stopped and hissed to the others: "Listen!"

Buffy and Faith stopped and listened to hear the sound of hooves coming nearer.

"Get off the track!" ordered Buffy. She grabbed Cordelia's arm and helped her into the woods to the right of the path. Faith chose left and decided to keep going a little way before stopping and lying down.

The horses, because that indeed is what they were, alien planet or no alien planet, came closer and slowed to a stop. From the noise it was clear that it wasn't just one rider but at least half a dozen. Buffy was able to see them through the foliage that she hoped was hiding her and Cordelia.

"You can come out," said one of the riders, a slim, dark haired man in a dark brown uniform. In fact as Buffy looked closely the riders seemed to be a military unit of about eight men. The speaker was presumably the officer in charge.

"With these special glasses we can see you quite clearly, both of you," he said. "We mean you no harm."

Buffy looked at Cordelia who shrugged. "I can't outrun horses anyway," she whispered. "In fact at the moment I can't outrun anything."

"Can you do anything magical if necessary," whispered Buffy.

"Only if really, really necessary," whispered Cordelia in reply. "I need more time before I'm back to normal."

"OK," said Buffy. "Let's see what they want."

Buffy and Cordelia walked back onto the road.

"OK," said Buffy addressing the man or officer in charge. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"That's just what I was going to ask," said the man.

The man introduced himself as Captain Brissim, an officer in the Kallistien army. Witches working with the Kallistien army had detected the strong magic that Cordelia had used in her teleportation spell and the Captain, with his patrol had been sent to investigate.

"We know you teleported away from the Goa'uld base so we're hoping you're on our side," said the Captain.

"And if we're not?" asked Buffy.

"That's up to our witches," said the Captain.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Once the NID people had gone the SGC sat down once again with the witches. Mary and Elise had now left. Without revealing anything about the Stargate Phoebe had told them something of what had happened in the gate room. Neither of them were interested in working with the Military and maybe coming up against something similar in future. They actually had little power beyond that demonstrated in the meeting room.

The meeting was between the SGC on the one side and Phoebe and her sisters on the other. Leo had orbed away having received a call from one of his other charges. Seeing no alternative the General agreed to Sam and Daniel explaining to the sisters about the Stargate after receiving their agreement to keep the information strictly confidential.

"You have secrets you want us to keep," said the General. "Well we'd like you to keep our secrets. Everything about the Stargate comes under the heading of National Security."

After thanking the witches for their assistance the General explained about the need the SGC had for the assistance of witches the next time they visited the world of Kallistien. "However that can wait," the General continued. "Now the Replicators have access to a Stargate we've got to move quickly to stop them destroying who knows how many worlds."

"We've got to go to the world they just came from as quickly as we can to try to stop them going anywhere else," said Jack. "If possible we'd like you ladies to go with us. You seem to have a certain way with these things."

"It may be too late to stop them," said Sam. "Even as we speak they may be using the Stargate. They may have used it before they attacked us."

"It's never too late," said Phoebe. "There's always a way. That's why I get those visions. There's always a way to stop it happening." Phoebe explained about her vision talent and about the vision she had had about the attack of the little metal monsters through the Stargate.

"Haven't we already stopped those things?" asked Piper. "Do you think your vision means we're meant to help other worlds? Where do we stop?"

"There are people, human people, on these other worlds that might be destroyed by these things?" asked Phoebe.

"Yes, on some of them there are," confirmed General Hammond.

"Then we're meant to help them," said Phoebe with certainty.

"I've an idea about how we can help," said Prue. "But I need to do a little research first. Could we all meet back here about the same time tomorrow?"

"Do we have that much time?" asked Daniel.

"If my idea works out the delay won't make any difference," said Prue.

"And we need to make our own preparations as well," said Jack. "That'll take a few hours."

"OK," said General Hammond. "We've also got to complete repairs to the Iris before we power up again. We meet again back here same time tomorrow. I really hope you can help us but even if you can't we've got to make a move ourselves then."

The witches stood up ready to leave.

"A moment before you go," said Teal'c. "Until now many here were convinced there was no such thing as a witch. A real witch with magic power." Teal'c carefully avoided looking at Jack but Daniel couldn't resist. "Is there such a thing as a vampire?" asked Teal'c.

"Oh yes," said Paige. "Vampires are real. We've met a few." She looked at her sisters. "We all have. Most of them are very dangerous."

"Is it true they don't have a reflection in a mirror?" asked Daniel.

Paige nodded. "Uh huh," she confirmed. "Some sorts. Have you seen one?" she asked. "Because down here, no sunlight, this is just the sort of place they'd love."

"It wasn't here," said Daniel. "It was in a hotel a few days ago."

"After dark?" asked Piper.

"Yup," replied Daniel.

"It was a woman," said Jack. "Mid twenties, dark hair, attractive. She said she wasn't a witch but she sometimes did magic."

"Did she have an English accent, a cockney accent?" asked Prue.

"Well yes," said Daniel, "I think she did. It was a bit strange but it was certainly English."

"She said she had The Sight," said Sam.

"She does," said Prue. "Her name's Drusilla. What did she tell you?"

"She said we'd be up against the Replicators," said Sam. "Those little metal monsters, we call them Replicators. She said we'd be up against the Replicators again soon, and we were. In fact I don't think we'd have continued to look for witches if it wasn't for what she said." General Hammond nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry about it," said Phoebe. "She's one of the good guys, well nowadays anyway."

"So she's not a vampire then?" asked Jack.

"Oh no," replied Paige. "She's a vampire alright. One of the very rare good vampires. Generally if you meet a vampire you want to run a mile, if you can."

As the witches orbed away Jack pulled out his wallet and reluctantly paid off his bets, still not entirely convinced about vampires.


	6. Enemies

**Chapter Six: Enemies**

Unfortunately none of the captured men had known anything about the disappearance of Buffy and Faith. They had just been ordered by their commander to go to Sunnydale. They had a list of 'witches' they had been ordered to bring back, kidnap if necessary: Amy, Anya, Willow and Buffy and details of where they might be found.

The men knew nothing about Tara or Faith or indeed anybody else in Sunnydale and had no idea that Buffy wasn't in fact a witch but was something else entirely. The captured men had only been told what they needed to know. They didn't know why their boss wanted them to kidnap witches.

Whoever had issued those orders to the commander of the captives had expected Buffy to be in Sunnydale. This raised the possibility that the disappearance of Buffy and Faith might not be connected to the 'Homeland Security' people who had come to Sunnydale.

Whilst Willow realised that the people who had been captured might not be working for the same people who were responsible for the disappearance of the slayers she was sure there was some connection. It was hardly likely that two independent groups had set out to kidnap Buffy at the same time without there being some connection between the two groups, even if they were working for different commanders. It was probably some high up covering all his bases.

They had learnt about the Goa'uld from the two Jaffa, the two men who had woken up suddenly. The master of these particular Jaffa was a Goa'uld named Marduk. For some reason Marduk, who according to the Jaffa ruled many worlds, had decided he wanted to add the Earth to his domain.

According to the Jaffa the Goa'uld had ruled Earth in ancient times many centuries ago. When they had been forced to leave, a number of deactivated, hidden Stargates had been left behind. Stargates it turned out were short cut portals between worlds and could be used to connect to any other world that had its own active Stargate. Marduk had recently sent agents to Earth by spaceship and they had been able to reactive one of the Stargates.

"What I don't understand," said Tara. "Is what he's waiting for. If he rules all these worlds he must have a pretty big army. Why doesn't he just send it through this Stargate now and conquer the world if that's what he wants?"

"Maybe his pretty big army is busy fighting somebody else's pretty big army," suggested Xander. "From what those Jaffa said these Goa'uld are a pretty quarrelsome bunch. They all seem to think they're god almighty. I doubt this Marduk had a load of spare soldiers just sitting around on the off chance this Stargate would be discovered."

"There's also logistics," said Kennedy.

"Logical what?" asked Amy.

"Not logical, logistics," said Kennedy. "You don't just need soldiers you need food, ammunition, medical supplies, reinforcements and lots more things if you're going to fight a war and you've got to get them to the right place. And don't forget he can't bring any really big equipment like aircraft through the Stargate except in pieces for reassembly."

"Maybe that's the sort of thing he wants witches for," suggested Dawn. "Perhaps he wants witches to shrink all his airplanes and stuff with magic and then enlarge them again on this side."

"Honey I shrunk the Air Force," suggested Xander.

"We really need to close this Stargate permanently," said Amy. "Why don't we just blow it up?"

"Not before we rescue Buffy and Faith," said Willow. "This Stargate might be the only way we have of getting them back. We don't just need to control it we need more prisoners, people who can show us how it works."

"Anyway I don't think this invasion will come via the Stargate," continued Willow. "At least not most of it. Don't forget these Jaffa got here by spaceship. They didn't use just one beach on D-Day, too risky. I expect most of his forces will come via spaceships. From what these Jaffa say he's got a of them,"

"And they might be on the way right now," said Xander. "So it might not do any good if we did blow up the Stargate."

"Xander Harris, the little ray of gloom in our sunshine," grumbled Anya.

The HQ of the Jaffa and their associates, the bogus Homeland Security agents, and the location of this Stargate, was an office building in downtown Seattle. It was agreed that their next step would be to launch an attack on this building as quickly as possible. Once they had the Stargate they would see what they could do about finding Buffy and Faith and stopping the Goa'uld invasion.

As the meeting broke up for everybody to make their own preparations Willow took Tara by the hand and pulled her aside. However to Tara's disappointment Willow did not this time have her usual amorous intentions beyond a quick affectionate kiss.

"I would imagine that Whitelighters have been about for quite a long time?" Willow suggested cautiously.

"Yes, that is I think so," replied Tara.

"Don't you think your bosses would know all about these Goa'uld," continued Willow. "That is if they really did rule the world centuries ago."

"I suppose they might," agreed Tara. "But that comes under their non-interference rules."

"You mean they won't help us," asked Willow, rather annoyed.

"I'm still learning all this myself," said Tara. "But as I understand it the only information allowed in situations like this are what comes in the form of visions and dreams to those with the gift, like Cordy and Phoebe, or the slayers. I can't just pop upstairs and get all the answers."

"But why?" asked Willow. "That makes no sort of sense."

"I'm afraid it does," disagreed Tara. "Knowledge is power. Once they start taking the lead in things like this then soon they'll be issuing the orders. We have free will and that includes the freedom to fail. The Elders can't step in every time because they know more than we do. In the long run nobody would like that. I'm told some elders have tried it a few times in the past and it never ended well."

"So we'd better contact Cordy then," said Willow still somewhat disappointed, "and find out what snippets of information they deign to let us have," she added sarcastically.

"I'll ask Kennedy to jot down any interesting dreams," said Tara smiling.

"If you or me are in them I don't want to know," said Willow smiling back.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cordelia was still sleeping when Buffy woke up. Buffy decided not to disturb her as she still hadn't fully recovered from the teleportation spell. As she stood up she noticed that Faith had joined them some time during the night and was sleeping on the couch on the other side of the room with the pole weapon on the floor beside her.

Buffy and Cordelia had each ridden behind one of the soldiers for some three hours to a rail terminal. They had then travelled by train to the army base which was near the capital city Demantine. The riding had been harder on Buffy than Cordelia since Cordelia was an experienced rider whereas Buffy had never ridden a horse before in her life.

Since the Captain had made no mention of noticing Faith, Buffy and Cordelia had said nothing about her. Faith had in fact followed the riders and then jumped the train. She had made her way into the army base and then found her way unobserved to the room which Buffy and Cordelia had been given to sleep, where she'd fallen asleep herself.

Buffy's movements awoke Faith and they chatted quietly about what had happened so as not to disturb Cordelia.

"So what do you think?" asked Faith. "Are these the good guys because the others, with everything they did to us are certainly the bad guys?"

"It's probably not that simple," said Buffy. "They've done nothing against us so far but I don't want to get involved in somebody else's war."

"But it's not somebody else's war is it?" said Cordelia who revealed that she too was awake and following the conversation although she remained lying on her bed.

"Those other people have been kidnapping people from our world," continued Cordelia. "We've got to stop them and release the captured people."

Faith gave Cordelia a curious look and then looked at Buffy. Buffy said nothing but knew what Faith was thinking. Is this the same person as the Queen C of Sunnydale High?

Buffy, Faith and Cordelia had agreed that they would stay together rather than risk losing contact with Faith so when Captain Brissim called at their room to take them to a meeting he was surprised to find that he had three guests not two. Although surprised he took it in his stride. He was used to dealing with witches after all.

The meeting was with a Kallistien General, General Selous and two senior witches, Maralli and Lagathe. Captain Brissim also remained in the room.

The meeting began with introductions. Buffy explained that the three companions and others had been kidnapped from Earth by unknown people. When a battle had broken out they had taken the opportunity to escape into the woods where Captain Brissim and his patrol had found them.

"We know you used a teleportation spell to jump into the woods," said Lagathe, a plump middle aged matronly woman. "It was so strong some of our witches detected it from several miles away."

"You must be very good at combining your witch powers," said Maralli the younger and rather Nubian looking witch.

"Why does everybody think I'm a witch?" asked Faith. "I'm not a witch, never been a witch, never want to be a witch. Is that clear enough?"

"You mean only you two are witches?" asked Lagathe.

Buffy briefly considered pretending but saw no point in doing so, especially as she was dealing with real witches. "Uh no, Cordy's the witch," she said. "Faith and I are not."

"You did the spell on your own?" said Maralli to Cordelia. Maralli was clearly astonished. "You must be very strong."

Being a witch, particularly a strong witch, seemed to be very much a status thing for the Kallistians as all their remarks were thereafter directed to Cordelia as they ignored Buffy and Faith as much as possible.

According to the witches the Kallistians were engaged in a war with invaders called the Goa'uld led by somebody called Marduk. They explained about the Goa'uld and the Jaffa who did most of the fighting for them.

The Goa'uld had controlled Kallistien centuries before until they had been defeated by an uprising led by witches. The Goa'uld Marduk had recently arrived on Kallistien and had been trying to take over control of the planet.

Although the technology used by the Goa'uld was far in advance of that of the Kallistians Marduk had not been able to take over the whole of the planet because of the opposition of the Kallistien witches. So far Marduk controlled only the southern part of the northern continent.

Recently Marduk had used witches of his own in the fighting, witches that seemed to have come from another world. As well as having space travel the Goa'uld were also able to travel to other worlds by use of Stargates. Using Stargates the Goa'uld had taken witches from elsewhere to work for him, including Earth it seemed.

In reply to questions from Buffy and Cordelia, General Selous described the Stargates and the way they were used.

"But we weren't brought here through a Stargate," explained Cordelia. "We were all snatched by some sort of a magic portal."

"That's because you weren't captured by Marduk," explained Lagathe. "Things are a lot more complicated now. We've recently discovered that a second Goa'uld called Apophis has also got forces operating on Kallistien. We thought at first he was working with Marduk. We now know that's not true. That battle you left. That was when Marduk's people attacked one of Apophis's secret bases."

"Who won?" asked Faith.

"Apophis brought in more people from off world and Marduk retreated," said the grey haired General Selous. "But that whole thing was probably only a skirmish in a much larger war between the two of them."

"So you're saying there are two different Goa'uld kidnapping people, witches, from Earth," said Buffy. "Marduk does it using his Stargates and the other guy Apophis does it with these magic yellow portals."

"Yes," said Lagathe. "Although now he has some witches of his own we suspect that Marduk might be using portals as well. Both Goa'uld are trying to increase the number of witches working for them. Since witchcraft is the only thing we have that's stopping them we've got to stop what they're doing."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harry Maybourne was mad, not insane but furious. Nevertheless he kept to a sensible speed as he drove up to the rendezvous point. Every time I have anything to do with the SGC everything falls apart he thought.

Following the crisis associated with the sounding of the alarm klaxons at the SGC Colonel Maybourne and Major Grant had been escorted off the base without even being told what the crisis was about and how it had been handled. The two NID people had been told in no uncertain terms by General Hammond that if any action was taken against the witches or their friends and relatives the NID would get the blame and would be held accountable. The general had kept Maybourne's notes to use as evidence if any such thing occurred in future.

As Maybourne drove he wondered if he should give up on the SGC, or even the NID. Maybe he should transfer out to some other outfit. Up until now he had had a brilliant career but his runs-ins with the SGC were putting blots on a fine record of achievement. He knew the way the NID worked. If this continued much longer he'd be passed over and put out to pasture or worse.

Maybourne arrived at the meeting point which was the second floor of a car park. Since it was late at night it was no surprise that there seemed to be nobody about. He parked his car and got out. As he turned away from his car he could now see a figure standing in the shadows about fifty yards away. He walked over in that direction.

"Well nice seeing you again," said Lilah Morgan.

Maybourne shrugged, pretending unconcern. "So what do you want?" he demanded.

"Well I thought I'd start with a chorus of 'I told you so' and then tell you how I can help," replied Lilah.

"How do you know what happened?" asked Maybourne. "I've not told you anything classified and I'm not going to."

Lilah smiled, as usual trying and succeeding in giving the impression that she knew a lot more than she was saying. "Would you be here if you'd gotten what you wanted?" she said. "You've been cut out of the loop again haven't you?"

Maybourne said nothing to this.

"This means you've still got no off world access," continued Lilah. "I can do something about that. I know where there's another active Stargate."

"Why should I trust you?" asked Maybourne.

To Maybourne, Lilah Morgan was a mystery, her motives unknown although she claimed simply to be a well informed patriot who heard things. He had first been contacted by her a few weeks before since when he had had her and her firm checked out. She was a lawyer, chief executive of the LA branch of an international firm called Wolfram and Hart. All further checks came up blank which either indicated that Lilah and Wolfram and Hart were clean or they were experts at covering themselves. Maybourne suspected the latter.

"Those names I gave you, they were real witches weren't they?" asked Lilah.

"So?" responded Maybourne.

"So you should have kept control of them," said Lilah. "Like I told you."

"If you've got nothing new to say..." began Maybourne turning away.

"You want to know what happened to your agents in LA airport?" asked Lilah. Maybourne turned back.

"That was you..." began Maybourne menacingly.

"No, that was the opposition," said Lilah calmly. "You have no idea what you're up against!"

"And you do?" said Maybourne.

"My enemy's enemy is my friend," said Lilah. "Guess that makes us friends."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Going through the Stargate, I think we've all learned to keep an open mind," said Sam. "But I'm still having a hard time believing in witches and vampires. It's somehow easier to believe that witches, vampires and all that, exist on other planets but not on Earth."

"Witches, vampires and all what?" asked Doctor Janet Fraiser, Sam's companion over a cup of coffee. "Do you think there may be more? Goblins, trolls, demons and so on?" Janet was smiling showing that she didn't take any of this too seriously.

"No, not really," replied Sam. "It's just that I'd like to work out how they do what they do. I want to make sense of it all."

"What exactly have they done?" asked Janet. "Did it really amount to all that much?"

"Oh no, nothing at all really," said Sam sarcastically. "Let's see we had teleportation, telekinesis, precognition, some sort of freeze effect, some way of exploding Replicators into dust oh and the thing that really bugs me, they somehow disconnected the Stargate from the Replicator base planet by reciting poetry. I can think of ways most of this could be done, but not without visible weapons and technology and not without a massive amount of power."

"Good job they're on our side then," said Janet. "But what about the witchcraft?"

"What do you mean?" asked Sam.

"Well everything you describe is usually thought of as psychic ability stuff," Janet explained. "You know, mind over matter and all that. If you think witches you think magic spells, love potions, witches' curses and so on."

"Love potions..." murmured Sam to herself before looking back at Janet. Janet resisted the impulse to smile.

"I see what you mean," said Sam. "You think we have a bunch of people who are psychically gifted but who call themselves witches. I can buy that."

"Apart from the vampire," said Janet.

"I'm still not buying that," said Sam.

"Here they are," said Jack walking up to the two women and sitting at their table, "You tell Sam and see what she thinks."

Jack was followed by Daniel and Teal'c who also sat at the table.

"Think about what?" asked Sam.

"Daniel has been researching into vampires," said Teal'c.

"Do we have time for that stuff now?" asked Sam.

"I'm all ready to go," said Daniel. "Just waiting for the witches, so I decided to do some reading. I picked this book up years ago because it's got some interesting bits about Egyptian religion."

"And it's even older and even more boring that his usual Egypt stuff," said Jack.

Daniel ignored Jack and opened the book he was carrying. "OK, see what you think of this," he began. "The vampire slayer is the Chosen One. The one who alone protects mankind by killing the demons and the vampires."

"How can one person alone protect all mankind?" asked Teal'c.

"It's like the person who kills the purple elephants," said Jack.

"But there are no purple elephants," chorused Sam, Daniel and Janet.

"Must be doing a terrific job," said Jack.

"Except there is at least one vampire," said Teal'c.

"You're meant to laugh," said Jack to Teal'c.


	7. Counter Attack

**Chapter Seven: Counter Attack**

Back at the Halliwell Manor Prue Halliwell was not happy, not happy at all. "You do realise what's happened don't you?" she said to her sisters. "We're now on record, on record with the US Military. I know we had to destroy those little replicator things but this could be a problem for us in the future."

"How exactly?" asked Phoebe. "Those guys are good at keeping secrets. It's not like the Stargate Project is all over the news."

"And it would be if the press heard about it," said Paige. "I haven't even seen anything about it on the net either. I looked just now."

"No," said Piper, "Prue's right. We're talking about the government here. Do we really want to be on their radar? Do we want to be brought in every time there's something they can't solve any other way?"

"It's not just that," said Prue. "There are good reasons for witches to work in secret. Once people know we exist they worry about us, they worry about the power we have and they start blaming us for things they don't like."

"I see what you mean," said Phoebe. "And there could come a time when they want us to do something and we say no, so suddenly we're the bad guys. We deal with demons and the supernatural. They might ask us to do something about human conflicts and we can't get involved in that."

"Exactly!" said Prue. "We've got to think about this carefully before we go back to the Stargate people."

"There are also those NID people who took Phoebe," said Paige. "They know about us, or at least about Phoebe and me."

"Yes, they know something about us that's for sure," said Prue. "But they probably don't know a lot about us. There's not really much we can do about that."

"We could do one of those magic monk spells that we heard about from Willow," said Piper.

"If there's no alternative," said Prue, "but I hope we don't have to. I think those cleaners deal with the little information leaks. They might be the main reason why most people always look for mundane explanations whenever possible."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When the sisters returned to the SGC the next day they turned up at the gate rather than orbed directly inside and then asked for a closed door meeting with General Hammond and SG-1.

"Look," said Prue, "we're happy to help you with this Replicator business but don't get the idea we're available for other matters."

"Dire, world threatening supernatural emergencies only," said Piper.

"We'll keep your secrets about the Stargate but you've got to keep our secrets as well," said Prue.

"Nothing in your reports about magic, witches or anything like that," said Paige.

"And no more witnesses to what we do than absolutely necessary," said Prue.

"Do you think we're nuts?" asked Jack. "If we always put down everything we saw and did in our reports the men in white coats would have taken us all away long ago."

Jack found General Hammond looking at him.

"You know what I mean Sir," said Jack, trying not to look guilty. "No secrets from you."

"I hope not," said General Hammond. "We'll have a little talk when we've got the time." After I've had another run through of the SG-1 reports he thought.

"The point is the term witch-hunt isn't just a metaphor for our family," said Phoebe. "We know the sort of thing that can happen when people get scared."

General Hammond and SG-1 agreed to the sisters' requests with one exception.

"I'm not keeping any secrets from the President," said General Hammond. "I'll make sure that nothing goes in the reports but if the President asks questions I'm not going to lie and I will carry out his orders."

With that sorted out Prue explained her plan and the reason for the bundles of herbs the witches had brought with them.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's in the basement all right," said Angel. "There are about a dozen people down there. Half of them seem to be these Jaffa people and the rest are technicians of one sort or another." Angel was reporting back after he and Gwen had scouted out the building in Seattle which reportedly housed the Stargate portal to other worlds.

Tara had tried to orb off to speak to Cordelia only to find that she was unable to do so because she was not able to home in on Cordelia. She found that either Cordelia was being hidden by powerful magic or she had left the world altogether. Since she knew that Cordelia wasn't dead she concluded that she was probably another victim of the round up of witches by Marduk's Jaffa.

Willow and Tara had gone to LA to consult with Angel and explain to him what was happening. Since Cordelia was meant to be visiting her family he had not known she was missing. Now Angel, Gunn and Gwen had joined Willow, Tara, Xander and Kennedy in Seattle. Fred, Connor and Lorne had remained in LA to keep an eye on things there.

Willow had refused to allow Dawn to come because it would mean she might miss school. Anya and Amy had temporarily moved to Slayer HQ in order to look out for the place and be with Dawn. They also kept an eye on the captives who were being kept in the basement in suspended animation with a stasis spell.

On arrival in Seattle courtesy of Tara's orbing, the gang had scouted out the building identified as housing the Stargate. Gathering nearby after dark the gang had waited whilst Angel and Gwen had entered the building to look around.

"We can get everybody in quietly," said Angel. "They won't know we're there until we arrive in the basement and make our move. Then we can take them all out."

"Security system's pretty old," said Gwen. "So long as we don't wake up the guys on the front desk they won't know we're coming."

"I could do a sleep spell for the whole building," said Willow. "Then we can just walk in the front door."

"Better not," said Kennedy. "Whoever's on the other side of the Stargate might be able to detect something's wrong. They might have units on the other side ready to come through. Couldn't Tara orb us inside?"

"I could but I'm trying to keep the orbing for when we really need it," said Tara. "I'm not meant to be seen by anybody who doesn't know about Whitelighters so I have to be careful. I have to be sure I don't appear on a security tape."

"You'd better save the magic to use against the Stargate itself," said Xander. "The first thing you do you'd better shut it down, stop anybody coming through."

"Block it off rather," replied Willow. "We can't afford to damage it. It might be the only way we have of getting Buffy back."

And Faith and Cordelia Tara added mentally as she smiled to herself. There was never any doubt where Willow's priorities lay.

They discussed for a while longer before deciding on a plan. Angel and Gwen would lead the gang inside, making sure to avoid the security devices. Willow, Tara, Xander, and Kennedy would go with them.

Willow and Tara would avoid getting involved in any fighting if at all possible in order to concentrate on trying to take control of the Stargate. Gunn would remain outside to watch for and warn of any new arrivals.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"OK," said Prue, standing up from where she had been sitting of the floor of the Gate room with her sisters. "We're ready to go."

"Plenty of smoke but I haven't seen the mirrors yet," muttered Jack to Daniel.

"You're not supposed to see the mirrors," replied Daniel smiling.

"Do you um, really think this is going to work?" asked Sam looking dubiously at the chalk circle on the floor of the Gate Room which Paige and Phoebe were rubbing out and the wisps of smoke still in the air.

"Well sometimes things do go wrong..." began Piper.

"But usually they don't," said Prue firmly giving Piper a mild glare. "Not in recent years."

"This from the woman who accidentally turned herself into a man and then a dog," Piper whispered quietly to Phoebe.

Not quietly enough because Prue heard and turned to glare at her sisters. Piper just smiled back. Not quietly enough for Teal'c's sharp hearing either. He said nothing as he wondered whether Piper meant what she said literally or whether she was making some sort of in joke.

Sam looked at Jack and Jack shrugged. She knew he believed that nothing had happened but there was really no alternative to hoping that the witches' plan worked. Anyway they would soon find out, seeing was believing.

Prue had explained that she believed the only way to be sure of stopping the Replicators was to go to the planet from where they had launched their attack but to go there 'before' the attack, that is to say use time travel.

"If we do this right we can get there before they use their Stargate to infest other planets," Prue had explained. "We will still have to let them launch their attack on Earth to avoid compromising the time line but once that's over we can destroy them and stop them going anywhere else."

"But supposing they used their Stargate to go somewhere else before they attacked Earth?" Daniel had asked.

"Or they have other Stargates already and the attack was launched from only one of their bases?" Teal'c had pointed out.

"All valid points," said Jack. "But unless we go and look see we'll never find out will we? As the General said, one step at a time."

"We can work our way back through time to other planets if necessary," said Phoebe. "We're all prepared to do more time travel spells." But I hope we don't have to she thought. This could get really complicated and be very easy to mess up.

The sisters had now completed their spells. If all went according to plan, when the Replicator planet was dialled up it would connect to a time about 24 hours before SG-12 went to the planet, in fact before the original robot probe had been sent through the Gate to check out the conditions.

Jack now turned to the control room. "Dial up!" he called. "All ready here."

The familiar surge came out of the gate and Jack lead the way forward. "OK, let's go people," he said holding his gun at the ready. "Now we've got witches with us perhaps we're really off to see the wizard this time."

"Just so long as one of them isn't the Wicked Witch of the West," whispered Daniel to Sam as they followed Jack and Teal'c up the ramp ahead of the witches.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The center of the Stargate burst into life and a wave of what looked like but couldn't be water rushed out and then back. The blackness at the centre now looked like rippling water and two of the Jaffa began walking up the ramp towards that watery curtain.

Having waited to see a demonstration of the Stargate in action Willow now decided that the time had come for action of her own.

"Freeze!" commanded Willow in a loud voice, directing her power at the two Jaffa. From her position of concealment in a gallery above the Stargate she was too far away to freeze all activity in the large open basement area below so she just concentrated on the two figures. The two Jaffa froze causing consternation amongst the others in the basement.

"What the hell is..." began the senior technician in charge starting forward from his control chair. He didn't complete his sentence as he was hit by an electrical charge as were his two nearby colleagues. They all three fell to the floor, unconscious victims of Gwen who had just appeared behind them.

The four remaining Jaffa had started forward towards their two frozen colleagues on the ramp but they stopped and turned back on hearing Gwen's attack on the technicians. They were therefore completely taken by surprise by Angel and Kennedy dropping from the ceiling amongst them.

Meanwhile Willow and Tara had made their way down to the front of the Stargate and, hand in hand, began to chant their barrier spell to block off the Stargate and prevent anybody from coming through for the time being.

Warned by Kennedy of the strength of the Jaffa in combat Angel didn't hold back as he normally did in hitting humans, nor of course did Kennedy. To achieve maximum shock affect Angel attacked in full vampire face.

Angel and Kennedy first concentrated on taking out the two Jaffa who were armed with some sort of pole weapon. Neither was given the chance to aim their weapon before being knocked down. The two remaining Jaffa, with slightly longer to react, proved more formidable.

Not formidable enough however. Having delivered crushing blows with both hands and feet the taller of the two remaining fighters found that he had not even slowed down his monstrous looking opponent. Angel shrugged off the blows and grabbed the Jaffa by the neck and threw him twenty feet up against the wall. The Jaffa slumped down immobile.

The remaining Jaffa may have thought he had the easier task against a diminutive young woman, but of course he knew nothing about slayers. He succeeded in getting in one blow from his fist but the blow, which would have struck most men unconscious or dead didn't even slow down the slayer. Kennedy responded with fast punches to the body and finished the fight with a knock out kick to the head.

Of the remaining three non-Jaffa, two elected to run, either to find help or just in self preservation. They found themselves blocked off however as Willow had already sealed the basement door. The final 'civilian' went to a nearby desk and pulled out a gun only to be hit by the electrical type discharge of an energy weapon. Xander held in his hand one of the two Zat guns captured from the Jaffa in Sunnydale.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Giles had agreed to meet Wesley and his party at London Heathrow airport so when he didn't turn up Wesley had his first indication that something might be wrong. He had this confirmed later in the day when he arrived at the HQ of the new Watchers Council to find everything in upheaval because of the disappearance of Giles.

Giles had left instructions that if anything happened to him his strong recommendation was that the Council appoint Wesley as his successor. Wesley had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand he was flattered by it but on the other he was annoyed that Giles had not discussed it with him first. In the short term however he found it very useful as he set in train measures to find out what had happened to Giles.

To start with Wesley had decided to use mundane methods to try to find out what had happened. Thus it was that Wesley found himself reviewing CCTV security tapes from various parts of the Watchers Council HQ building for the day that Giles had disappeared.

Although Wesley had managed to pass over responsibility for his two potentials to another watcher for the duration of their stay in England he had decided to keep Eve with him in order to keep an eye on her. So far she had contributed nothing to the investigation other than to deny any knowledge of what might be going on.

"I'm not saying Wolfram and Hart couldn't have done something like snatch Giles," said Eve. "But it's not really their style. Anyway they generally steer clear of Britain because of the Council, at least this part of Britain."

"They're scared of the Watchers' Council?" asked Wesley surprised.

"No, not scared," said Eve. "But if you wanted to do something and not have it noticed would you go out of your way to do it somewhere where it might be seen by people who could recognise what was going on? There are a lot of places where Wolfram and Hart can do what they need to without doing it in front of the Council."

"So why don't Wolfram and Hart clear out of LA now that Angel and the rest of us are there?" asked Wesley.

"There's a difference between not going somewhere and being chased out of town," said Eve. "Anyway the Watchers Council you're not."

"So you don't think Wolfram and Hart want Giles so they can question him?" asked Wesley. If they are so wary about the Council that might be just what they would do thought he thought, still suspicious.

Wesley had already determined to question Eve about how Wolfram and Hart operated and what they were currently up to. That was one of the reasons for taking her to England. What she told them could be compared to what the Council already knew to see if she was telling the truth and was genuine about changing sides.

"Pu...lease," replied Eve. "You think they don't know how a slayer is chosen, how a watcher is trained? Money is a much better and more reliable way of finding out what you want to know. That way the opposition don't usually know you know it."

"Bribery?" asked Wesley. "Who exactly..."

Wesley broke off as the scene of Giles being taken by the yellow circle was now being played out in front of them. They watched in silence until it was over.

"So that's what happened," said a voice from behind them making both Wesley and Eve jump since they thought they were alone in the room.

"Jenny, hi," said Wesley who immediately recognised the woman standing behind them. "I thought you Whitelighters always appeared in a shower of light?"

"That's optional," said Jenny smiling. "It's not always a good idea to be so obvious."

Wesley introduced Jenny as a friend of Giles and started to introduce Eve.

"It's OK," said Jenny. "I know who Eve is. Giles told me all about her when he told me you were coming."

Jenny explained that she had regular meetings with Giles. In fact although she didn't say it, dates would be a better description. But she had been busy elsewhere since she last saw him. She had only found out about his disappearance a short while before.

"Any idea where that portal took him?" asked Wesley.

"Nope," replied Jenny. "But I can't find him anywhere on Earth so I'm thinking he's on some other world, in some other dimension. I think I'd know if he were dead."

"Do you know any way of finding out which other world?" asked Eve. Jenny shook her head.

"But I know some people who might know," said Wesley.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cordelia had agreed to join the Kallistien witches in an attack on Apophis's base. An attack which was being hastily planned by the witches and their military associates to take advantage of the disruption caused by the Marduk/Apophis battle.

Captain Brissim had offered to have Buffy and Faith taken to a place of safety while the attack took place. Faith laughed at this but Buffy glowered so Cordelia hurriedly explained that she needed both of her friends to stay and help with the attack.

"They're both experienced fighters," she explained, to the surprise of the Kallistians who were not familiar with the idea of women soldiers or fighters.

"But we need weapons," said Buffy making the point that she had no intention of staying safe anywhere. "What have you got?"

"Can you use a gun?" asked the Captain.

"No guns," said Buffy. "We prefer swords. Oh, and we've got one of those pole thingies the Jaffa use. We'll be hanging onto that."

"And knives," added Faith. "A knife and a sword each." We can make our own stakes later if we need them she thought. I wonder if they have vampires on this world. I wonder if they have their own slayer.

The still sceptical Captain took the slayers to the armoury where he introduced them to the sergeant in charge. "Have you got a couple of swords small enough for these ladies?" he asked.

"What's the use of a little sword?" asked Faith who walked past the sergeant to where various sorts of swords and knives were stacked. She picked out one of the longest and heaviest of the blades and began twirling it around as if it were a light twig, to the great surprise of the captain and sergeant.

Faith was making a point because she was quite well aware of the impression she was making on the two men. She lightly tossed the blade to Buffy who caught it easily. "What do you think?" Faith asked Buffy.

"Great if you intend fighting Sir Lancelot," said Buffy who also took the opportunity to make a few fast passes with the weapon. "You going to wear it on your back like Xena?"

"Sure," smirked Faith putting her head to one side in inquiry as she looked straight at Buffy. "If you're going to dress like Gabrielle?"

In the end the slayers opted for two more modern lightweight swords. They were of higher quality than the somewhat medieval broadswords and less inconvenient to carry around. They also each chose a pair of throwing knives.


	8. Off World

**Chapter Eight: Off World**

The attack on Apophis's base seemed to have been a complete waste of time. Nobody was there. The whole place it seemed had been evacuated following the battle with Marduk. Buffy and Faith had insisted on going in with the first wave of attackers and they were now wandering around the building where they had met Cordelia and from where she had teleported them to safety.

"So do you trust them?" asked Faith. "The Kallistians, do you think they're telling us the truth?"

"About the big things, about Apophis and Marduk, yes I do," replied Buffy.

"But you think they could send us home if they wanted to," said Faith.

Buffy nodded. "They don't want to lose Cordy," she said. "I think this war has really stretched them, stretched their witches pretty thin so they're desperate for any help they can get."

"What about these Tau'ri people they're waiting to hear from?" asked Faith. "From what the captain said they come from another world and they know their way around. Think they could get us home?"

"Maybe," said Buffy. "I don't think the captain was meant to say anything about them for that very reason."

"Yeah," agreed Faith. "Those witches were very annoyed when they found out we knew about the Tau'ri. I think we'd..."

Faith broke off as the sounds of fighting broke out. Explosions, gunfire and the sound of power weapons coming from all directions broke the silence. It seemed there was to be a battle after all.

Buffy and Faith ran through the building towards the rear exit intent on their main mission which was to take at least one prisoner for questioning. As they exited the building they saw a group of Jaffa, armed with staff weapons, appear from nowhere inside the rings of a teleportation device so they immediately ducked back inside.

Other Jaffa groups had already appeared on the other sides of the building, and maybe inside the building because firing of Kallistien guns and Jaffa weapons seemed to be coming from all sides.

"Brissim's upstairs," said Faith. "Let's grab him and get out of here." Without waiting for a reply she darted up the rear stairs. I knew she fancied him thought Buffy as she followed closely behind.

Brissim and the soldiers under his command were in a long gallery two floors up struggling with a group of Jaffa. The Jaffa had teleported in without warning, in amongst the Kallistien soldiers taking them by surprise. The two groups had found themselves at such close quarters that the fight had developed into a series of hand to hand struggles.

Neither Buffy not Faith gave a moment's thought to drawing their swords and knives. They were being carried strictly for use against non-human enemies, not against the human Jaffa. Buffy and Faith now waded into the fight using their well honed personal combat skills.

Some of the Kallistien solders were down and two of the Jaffa had turned away to pick up their weapons. It was these two enemies who were Buffy's first targets. Moving at speed she leapt at one opponent and delivered a reverse flying kick. The Jaffa was propelled with such force that he went backwards, rolling over and over to crunch up against the back wall.

Buffy's other target was already down having been given a stiff arm by Buffy as she flew past. Neither Jaffa was now moving, and wouldn't be able to move for some time even with the assistance of their symbiotes.

Faith moved at a more measured pace, stalking through the gallery. A punch here, a duck there, a well targeted low kick when necessary. As she intervened in various individual combats in turn the Kallistien soldiers found themselves able to deal with a fallen or disabled opponent and finish him off.

Faith's ultimate objective was Brissim. The captain, no mean fighter himself, was nevertheless in trouble. He was wrestling with a ferociously strong Jaffa who was now on top of him and threatening to choke him to death. Suddenly the Jaffa was lifted off of the captain and thrown hard up against the wall, to collapse in a heap on the floor.

Brissim took the helping hand offered and got to his feet. He was surprised to find that the hand belonged to Faith. As he stood up he looked around and in particular he looked at his now unconscious opponent. Now what happened to that guy he wondered. Did one of our witches help out?

Suddenly he had his answer as he saw Faith pluck another Jaffa away from his Kallistien opponent and toss him into the centre of the room. The toss was ended by a collision with another Jaffa tossed from the other direction by Buffy. That ended the fighting for the moment since the slayers and the soldiers had run out of opponents.

Brissim looked at his sergeant, who was now at his side. The sergeant shrugged, having no more idea of what was going on than Brissim. Meanwhile the two slayers high-fived in the middle of the gallery to an audience of surprised Kallistien soldiers.

"Looks like dating one of these Earth girls could be quite exciting," said the sergeant looking pointedly at the Captain.

The slayers and the Kallistien soldiers were not the only people left standing after the fighting. A young woman, a junior witch, was completing the drawing of a large chalk circle in the middle of the gallery.

"Now!" screamed the witch. "Get inside the circle!"

The soldiers rushed to obey and gathered inside the circle. At Brissim's command they took two unconscious prisoners with them. As they entered the circle they all vanished from the sight of the watching Buffy and Faith.

The witch stepped out of the circle and reappeared. "You too!" she yelled at the two slayers. The witch grabbed their hands and pulled them with her inside the circle.

Inside the circle Buffy, Faith, the witch and the soldiers could see the room as if through a mist. They were presumably all now concealed from sight.

"What do we do now?" asked Buffy.

"Shhhh," hissed the witch. "We don't want anybody to hear us," she whispered. "I'm contacting HQ to get us all teleported out of here." The witch now closed her eyes and concentrated.

For the next few minutes the people in the circle remained silent as the sounds of battle gradually diminished and finally stopped. A few minutes after that a group of four armed Jaffa came warily into the room and looked around. The soldiers inside the circle took aim on the Jaffa and the captain raised his hand ready to give the order to fire.

"Look out!" screamed another young woman who had just come into the room with more Jaffa. This was another witch but one who was working with the Jaffa, voluntarily or not. Clearly she could see everybody in the circle.

Even so the Kallistien soldiers had the clear advantage as they were able to shoot the Jaffa who could not see them. As the firing started Buffy took advantage of the mayhem to rush out and grabbed the newly arrived witch and pull her into the circle. The firing ended quickly with all of the newly arrived Jaffa either dead or wounded.

"Everybody ready?" asked the Kallistien witch looking around her. "They're going to transport us...NOW."

Everybody in the circle saw the room fade before finding themselves at the nearby temporary Kallistien base inside another witches circle. Or rather not everybody. As Faith looked around she found that Buffy and the witch who had been working with the Jaffa were no longer with them.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Giles wasn't being kept a prisoner exactly, or so he was assured, but as he didn't know how to return to his own world the result was the same. Even so as time went by he began to consider trying to get away from the people he was with.

The people were, as far as he could tell completely human but the planet most definitely wasn't Earth. The three moons that came up at night made that perfectly clear as well as the generally alien look to all of the local vegetation.

On suddenly finding himself in a strange room, with strange people Giles had naturally acted very defensive. He had been welcomed by a tall middle aged man called Togunus who had apologised for what looked like an abduction and assured Giles that they only wanted his help.

If it looks like an abduction and feels like an abduction then it's an abduction Giles had responded. Togunus had responded with a forced laugh and insisted that all would be explained in good time. In the time since then nothing had been explained although Giles had been given a nice room, had been well fed but had been fobbed off with "soon, soon," by Togunus every time Giles tackled him.

Being largely left to his own devices Giles had started to explore the premises of what looked to be something like a large country house. The main building, with its two extensive wings and a number of substantial outhouses seemed to be nowhere near any larger settlement. On the good side, the house was not fortified and there were no guards that Giles had been able to see.

Giles had been able to confirm the isolation of the house the previous day when he had managed to find his way onto the roof and thereby gained a good view in all directions. Rolling hills, clumps of trees and growing crops made up the sum total of the local landscape. There was a road leading away from the building to the north and it was this that Giles had begun to think of exploring. However Giles's plans now underwent an abrupt change.

Giles had now reached the third floor of the east wing of the building. He opened one of a set of double doors to discover something he had always found irresistible, a library.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The scene on the other side of the Stargate was just as recorded by the original robot probe, a landscape of open grassland with distant snow-capped mountains. There were no signs of any Replicators or of SG-12.

Jack walked around the Stargate and came back to his original position in front of the Gate where the four sisters and the rest of SG-1 were now gathered. There was no sign of any Replicators in the immediate area as far as he could see.

"OK," said Daniel. "So far so good. We might have arrived before the robot probe but how do we know for sure we've really gone back in time?"

"We won't know for sure until the probe comes through," said Sam. "Which if everything goes the way the witches say will be a few hours from now."

"There are no track marks on the ground from the probe," pointed out Teal'c. "Even though the ground is soft."

"We couldn't just dial home now and say hi to the General, what's the date?" asked Jack.

"That would corrupt the timeline," said Prue. "It might end up that we're not there when the Replicators attack and you don't want to risk that."

"Anyway the General might not open the Iris," said Sam. "Don't forget we're back on Earth at the moment, if this has worked properly. Any signal from us at this time would be suspicious."

"I was afraid you'd say that," said Jack. "What are they doing?" he continued nodding towards the three younger sisters who were kneeling down together concentrating on a paper spread on the ground.

"They're doing a scrying spell," said Prue. "They're trying to get a direction for the Replicators. Assuming they're already on this planet we want to find out where they are."

"More magic," muttered Jack shaking his head. He decided to take Sam and Teal'c on a sweep of the area while the witches were otherwise occupied. He left Daniel to keep an eye on the witches and provide armed protection if necessary.

"What's his problem?" asked Prue in an annoyed voice as she stood by Daniel watching the other three members of SG-1 walk away. "He asked for our help, witch help. That's exactly what we're giving him."

"Sorry," said Daniel. "That's just Jack. His mind knows what you can do. It's just his emotions haven't caught up yet. You must have met other people who found it hard to accept witchcraft, even after seeing you in action."

"I suppose," replied Prue thoughtfully. Really it's a good thing she tried to convince herself. If we make him this uncomfortable he'll be less likely to try to involve us in any future crises. He won't see us as his get out of jail free card all the time. Still she thought, it would be nice to be appreciated. Prue walked away over to where her sisters were working.

After repeating the scrying spell several times and getting similar results the four sisters were puzzled.

"What's the problem," asked Daniel walking up behind Paige. "Isn't it working?"

"Well it does seem to be working," replied Paige. "In a way, but it keeps pointing up into the sky and every time we repeat the spell it points to a slightly different part of the sky. Can these things fly?"

"Sounds like the Replicators are in orbit," said Daniel.

"Those little things, they have their own spaceships?" asked Paige surprised. "We didn't think of that."

"Afraid so," replied Daniel. "I'd better tell Jack."

"This is probably good news," was Sam's response to this information when the rest of SG-1 returned.

"Because?" asked Jack.

"Because it almost certainly means the Replicators haven't yet found this Stargate," explained Sam.

"Is that what they do," asked Piper. "Travel around in spaceships looking for Stargates?"

"Maybe," said Sam. "But I hope not. It may just be coincidence that a group of them turned up on a planet with a Gate."

"Perhaps they have some way of detecting Stargates?" suggested Phoebe. "Because if they're still in orbit now they were mighty quick to find this one and launch their attack."

"They would have been able...will be able, to detect the radio transmission of the robot probe when it came, when it comes through the Stargate," said Teal'c. "The Replicators search out evidence for high technology so that they can build more Replicators."

"And that's it, they simply want to build more and more Replicators?" asked Paige.

"Isn't that just what people do?" asked Piper. "Produce more and more people?"

"And rats produce more and more rats," said Jack. "And we don't like that either. Anyway these things are dangerous. We know of at least one world where they ran amok and caused the death of everybody living there."

"Well I could freeze the probe when it comes through," said Piper. "And no transmission."

"Afraid not," said Prue, "changing the timeline again."

"OK people," said Jack. "This is what we're going to do."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A quiet road in the forest, birds are singing, or at least bird like creatures are singing because this isn't Earth. It is late afternoon of a hot day and if there are any people about they aren't in sight. Just off to one side of the road a round yellow inter-world portal has just winked into existence.

A man jumps through the portal quickly followed by two women, one fair and one dark, both beautiful. A few seconds later the portal winks out. Now the forest is not quite so quiet, as the newcomers look around and start to chatter.

"Well it's certainly not a hell dimension," said Eve as she looked around. "It's much too pretty."

"I wouldn't go too much on first impressions if I were you," said Wesley. "However pretty it all is, there's somebody around here up to no good."

"No sign of your Mr Giles," said Eve. "Are you sure we've come to the right place?"

"It's the right world," said Jenny who was standing very still with her eyes closed. "I can vouch for that, I can feel Giles is here somewhere."

"Here nearby or here on this world?" asked Wesley.

"Can't you just orb off to wherever he is and pick him up?" Eve asked Jenny. "We can all go home then."

Jenny looked at Eve thoughtfully. "Maybe," she said and disappeared in the usual show of lights. She reappeared some fifty yards away. She orbed back to her original position. "Hm," she said. "I was afraid of that."

"Can't trace him?" asked Wesley.

"Not exactly," said Jenny. She pointed over towards where she had orbed. "I can tell he's in that direction but I can't say how far away he is. Might be just around the next tree, might be thousands of miles away."

"So what's the problem?" asked Eve.

"It's the orbing," replied Jenny. "The good news is I can orb to places I can see or remember so I can bring us back to this exact point when it's time to go home. The bad news is I can't simply orb to anywhere on this world."

"But you can orb anywhere back on Earth can't you," asked Wesley.

"Most places yes," said Jenny. "That's because Whitelighters have been travelling around the world for a long time. I can sort of tune into their collective memory and orb to pretty well anywhere. I think I'm the first Whitelighter who's ever been to this world though."

Back in England Wesley had engaged the assistance of the Devon coven of witches. They had studied the CCTV footage of Giles's disappearance and done some tests of the area in the basement where the yellow portal had appeared. They had finally been able to do a spell to open their own yellow portal to provide a gateway to wherever it was that Giles had been taken, or at least to the world where he had been taken.

The witches would be reopening their portal for short periods at 24 hour intervals for the foreseeable future to allow the group, plus hopefully Giles, to return. Although it was possible that time went either faster or slower than back on Earth it was decided that this was the best option rather than trying to keep the portal open all the time with the power that would take and the risk of having who knew what come through from the other world.

As the travellers stood talking the quiet of the forest was broken by the sound of two low flying aircraft passing overhead, one after the other.

"Get off the road!" cried Wesley rushing into the trees. He sprinted the twenty yards or so only to find he was the last to gain shelter. Jenny had grabbed Eve's hand before orbing and they had arrived ahead of him.

The group waited silently for about ten minutes but nothing more happened.

"Do we go the way the planes went or head off in the opposite direction?" asked Eve.

"Wait here," said Jenny. "I'll go ahead and check things out. I'll orb back if I see anything interesting. Otherwise I'll report back every half hour or so."

With that Jenny orbed down the road and then orbed forward in the direction taken by the aircraft. She made short orbs within her visibility, keeping to the edge of the trees. Soon she was out of sight. A few minutes later there was an enormous explosion from that direction and several columns of smoke appeared over the top of the trees.


	9. Now You See It, Now You Don't

**Chapter Nine: Now You See It: Now You Don't**

The SGC robot probe came through the Stargate on schedule and began transmitting back through the gate. SG-1 and the witches were careful to remain out of sight. Meanwhile the transmission was detected by the orbiting Replicator Spaceship. Always alert to evidence of high technology the Replicators immediately altered course in order to land by the source of the transmission.

An hour later SG-12 came through the gate led by Major Janice Larkham. She was accompanied by Doctor 'Bobby' Sarfraz, Lieutenant Bruce Davidson and Sergeant Carlos Rees. They sent their routine messages back to the SGC which then closed the gate after bringing the robot probe back. SG-12 then started walking away from the Stargate along an ancient road leading towards the mountains. On the other side of the first hill they climbed, they were surprised to find SG-1 and four young women waiting for them.

"Colonel O'Neill?" said Major Larkham. "But we just left you back at the SGC."

"I know," said Jack, "but there's been a change of plan."

"How do we know this is really Colonel O'Neill?" asked Sergeant Rees pointing his gun at SG-1. "We've all read the reports of previous missions. This might be a robot or something."

"He's right," said Doctor Sarfraz. "This can't possibly be Colonel O'Neill. We would have seen anybody who followed us through the gate."

"It's really us Bobby," said Daniel. "There's been a time travel effect. It's complicated but we'll explain it all to you."

"I need to check with General Hammond sir," said Major Larkham to Jack. "It won't take a moment. Bruce, go back to the Gate and dial up."

"No!" said Sam and Prue together at the same time. "The timeline again," explained Sam.

"I'm afraid..." began Jack whilst at the same time wondering how to persuade the major not to contact the SGC without making her more suspicious. However he was interrupted by the sight and sound of the Replicator spaceship passing overhead.

The sound abruptly dropped in volume as if the Replicator ship was suddenly much further away. Jack found Piper Halliwell stood next to him. "What happened?" he asked as he realised that SG-12 were standing frozen in front of him.

"I froze you all," explained Piper who was now releasing the rest of SG-1 from the freeze.

"Are they alright?" asked Sam indicating the frozen SG-12.

"They're fine," said Phoebe. "Even if Piper doesn't release them it wears off after a few minutes."

"We had better get their guns," said Teal'c. "It is much safer explaining things to unarmed people."

"I'll get her radio for transmitting the SG-12 ID," said Sam going over to Major Larkham and putting her hand in the other major's pocket. This however released the major from the freeze and she still had her gun. She reacted quickly and aggressively and Sam found herself on her back with the other major's gun pointed directly into her face.

"What's going on?" demanded Major Larkham. "Who are you people and why are you pretending to be SG-1?"

The Replicator spaceship was now close to landing about a quarter of a mile away.

"We don't have time for this," said Prue waving her arm. The major's gun jumped out of her hand into the nearby long grass.

"Radio!" said Paige holding out her hand. Major Larkham's radio now appeared in Paige's hand. "I'll prime this to transmit the correct ID and put it by the gate like we planned," she said and orbed away.

"What?" said Major Larkham, not knowing where to look next.

"You're in no danger Janice," said Sam getting to her feet. "At least not from us. We really are SG-1. I'll explain it all but we've got to get out of sight right now."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Colonel Maybourne walked into the room and over to where two of his team were standing over a third man. "OK," he said. "What've you got?"

"His name's Gunn, Charles Gunn," said NID agent Lacey, indicating the unconscious man on the table in the middle of the room. Lacey was holding Gunn's wallet which he now closed up and put back into Gunn's pocket.

"He was definitely staking out the place," said Lacey. "Phil took him down with his dart gun," he continued, indicating his colleague who was holding a cellphone to his ear. "We're waiting for details on this guy to come through. We can question him when he wakes up, unless you want us to give him a wake up shot now?"

"I can tell you all you need to know about Charles Gunn," said Lilah Morgan who had followed Maybourne into the room.

"He's one of yours?" asked Maybourne.

"Oh no," said Lilah. "But he's not one of theirs either. He works for a uh man called Angel in LA."

"So what's he doing here?" asked Maybourne.

"Look at this," said Lacey who now held out the Zat gun carried by Gunn. This was the second Zat gun taken from the Sunnydale Jaffa.

"That's a Jaffa weapon," said Maybourne. "So if he's not theirs and he not yours how come he's involved in all this? Who's this guy Angel?"

"That would be me," said Angel who abruptly appeared from the shadows darkening the far side of the large room.

"How the hell?" said Lacey who had searched the room shortly before and knew there was no way into the room from that direction.

"Hello Angel," said Lilah smiling. "Knew I could rely on you to mess things up, like you usually do."

Angel was followed out of the shadows by Tara. After the gang had completed the takeover of the Stargate Angel had received a call from Gunn saying he was being watched. The call had been abruptly cut off. At Angel's request Tara had then orbed him to the nearest point to Gunn's location possible without being seen and he had heard most of the conversation taking place between Maybourne and his team.

Tara went straight over to Gunn and placed her hand on his forehead. Before her healing had a chance to start Lacey grabbed her hand and pulled it away. "Hey," he exclaimed. "Stay...Ow!"

On having her hand grabbed by Lacey Tara had responded by muttering a hot spell and Lacey rapidly withdrew his hand as if it had been scalded. He was now shaking it in pain. He didn't interfere as Tara once again placed her hand on Gunn's forehead and it began to glow. Gunn started to wake up.

"Before things start getting unpleasant how about you explaining who these people are and what's going on," said Maybourne to Lilah. Lacey's colleague Phil had now put his cellphone away and was holding a gun on the newcomers.

"Yes, do explain," said Angel sweetly looking directly at Lilah. "Better do it quickly before Willow finds out one of your goons laid his hands on Tara. And you know how she feels about guns and who they're pointed at."

As he looked at Lilah, Maybourne could see from her face that Angel's comment had hit home. Whoever Willow was she obviously put the fear of death into Lilah. The usually unflappable lawyer had now turned ashen white as all of the blood drained from her face. This was the same Lilah who seemed to take Witches, Jaffa, Goa'uld and everything like that in her stride.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At last Giles was being given some information. Unfortunately he was pretty well convinced that it was not strictly true, in fact was complete rubbish. Mr oh-so-jovial Togunus seemed to be spinning a yarn.

Giles was no longer the only kidnap victim in the house. He had been joined by two others snatched from Earth: Abebe Lua, a doctor and part-time dabbler in the occult from the Congo and Eric Chan, the owner of a Chinese medicine store in Singapore. What Giles had quickly discovered was that neither man had any real talent in magic and only the most rudimentary idea of how magic worked.

It seemed that Togunus and his colleagues had been spending the time since snatching Giles in trying to find other magic users on Earth. Although it seemed that they had some way of detecting magic users on Earth, finding the opportunity to snatch them without anybody else noticing was a time consuming business. It also seemed possible to Giles that they had been specifically searching for male magic users.

It had quickly become clear that neither of the other Earthmen had any concerns about being kidnapped. Something had been done to them to make them co-operative with their kidnappers, something that had not had any affect on Giles.

It was doubtless because Togunus assumed that all three men were suitably under control that the story he told was so threadbare and lacking in credibility. Lacking in credibility that is for anybody with other sources of information.

According to Togunus his world, the world of Kallistien, was under the control of a group of wicked witches. They oppressed the people, especially the men and sacrificed children to their wicked rites. They had seized control from the rightful rulers who had been overthrown several centuries before.

Togunus and his associates were preparing to take action to restore the so called rightful rulers to power and depose the wicked witches. Giles presumed that the expressions 'rightful rulers' and 'Togunus and his associates' were interchangeable. Giles and the other magic users from Earth were there to help in this rightful task when they would be expected to use the legendary powers of the Tau'ri to overthrow the witches.

Giles knew that the term Tau'ri meant nothing to Chan or Lua but neither of them queried what Togunus was saying, in fact neither of them asked any questions at all. Giles followed their lead and also said nothing. In the Kallistien myths that Giles had read the Tau'ri were the legendary inhabitants of an idealised human home world and had all sorts of amazing magical powers.

It seemed likely that Togunus and his crew had recently taken over the country house as their HQ and had no idea that the library found by Giles even existed. Even had they known about it they probably wouldn't have been concerned given that they seemed to assume that Giles was as much under control as the others.

Giles had obtained a very different picture of Kallistien society from his reading in the library. For one thing the original 'rightful rulers' were not the sort of characters who anybody would want back. They had regarded themselves as gods and treated the Kallistien people as little better than slaves to be exploited.

The witches were by all accounts sometimes arrogant and difficult but they didn't actually rule the world. That was in the hands of the democratic government. The witches controlled the use of and training in the practice of magic.

Either because of prejudice on their part or for other reasons most of the Kallistien magic users, that is to say the witches, were women. Otherwise Kallistien society was controlled by the usual mix of politicians, most of them being middle aged men.

Having found out something of the real situation from his reading Giles had then concentrated on trying to find some way of returning home to Earth. His intentions in this respect were confirmed by the briefing from Togunus. Giles certainly didn't want to get involved in local politics. The problem was there were no magic books in the library.

What didn't add up to Giles was that the evidence of magic use, the control of the others and the use of a magic portal, didn't match up with the ignorance displayed by Togunus as to things magical. Neither he nor his colleagues seemed to have any idea that the other kidnap victims would not be able to produce any legendary magical powers. In Giles's opinion lighting a candle would probably stretch them. As the meeting drew to a close he finally decided to risk a question.

"It must take great power and skill to operate the portal that brought us all here," he asked. "You must have great magical skill yourself."

"Oh no," replied Togunus. "I don't get involved in that side of things at all. Lord Shumi does all that."

"And when do we get to meet Lord Shumi?" asked Giles.

"Right now," said a deep voice from behind Giles.

Giles turned and saw a tall middle aged man with black greying hair. He would have looked much like the other Kallistians Giles had already met except that his eyes were lit up with some sort of internal power.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

One moment Buffy was standing in the circle holding the captured witch by the arm, the next she was in some sort of a busy control room with uniformed soldiers and technicians bustling about the place.

Buffy and the witch had arrived in a chalk circle in the corner of the large room. Buffy was surprised because she had expected to arrive back at the Kallistien base along with the Kallistien soldiers and Faith. The witch, who was responsible for the diversion, was not at all surprised because she had arranged for it to happen by communicating with her witch colleagues in the service of the Goa'uld.

Like the Kallistien teleportations the actual teleportation was carried out by a group of witches. There were seven witches sat around the circle and Buffy's companion now greeted them.

"I got one," said the witch. "I got a prisoner. I don't know who she is but she was with the Kallistien soldiers."

The other witches got to their feet. The eldest, presumably the leader, turned to one of two nearby Jaffa. "Take her down to the detention area. I expect the commander will want to interview her later."

Buffy suppressed her first impulse to take on the Jaffa and the witches. Clearly nobody there thought she was any sort of a threat. She decided to wait until she was in a place with fewer opponents before making her move.

Without saying a word the large, brown skinned Jaffa took Buffy's right arm and started marching her out of the room. As she left she was walked pass a large vertical ring set upright at the top of a ramp. A group of sitting and standing men, including Jaffa were looking at the ring as if expecting something to happen to it.

As she left the room she heard the voice of one of the technicians: "I can't make contact. There's something wrong at the other end."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So how come you know all about Stargates?" asked Willow suspiciously, directing her question to Colonel Maybourne.

Maybourne together with Lilah Morgan and the NID agents were in the basement location of the captured Stargate. Maybourne had ordered his man to put down his gun and Angel had agreed to take Maybourne and the others to meet Willow and the rest of his group provided they brought no weapons with them.

"Because we've been aware of what's been going on for some time," said Maybourne who was looking around the Stargate which, as far as he could see was identical to the Stargate at SGC. "We were just getting ready to move in. This is now a matter of National Security. Thank you for what you've done but we'll take over now."

As he spoke Maybourne took out his cellphone and began punching numbers only to have it snatched away from him by Angel. "Hey!" objected Maybourne. Maybourne's two agents started forward only to find themselves face to face with Gunn and Xander. Maybourne waved them to back off.

"You really don't want to fight with us," said Angel.

"Really?" said Maybourne. "And do you want a fight with the US Government?" he asked with a smile.

"Why does everybody in this business have Government ID's?" asked Kennedy from her perch sitting on the Stargate ramp. "The guys who were here claimed to be Government agents. How do we know you're genuine?"

"And even if you are what makes all this stuff yours?" asked Gwen. This stuff must be worth a fortune she was thinking. We should be able to negotiate some sort of finder's fee when Willow's finished with it.

"And why are you working with Wolfram and Hart?" asked Gunn. "That's a big strike against you straight away."

"Look," said Lilah, "We're all on the same side here. None of us want the Goa'uld back. It was tough enough getting ridding of them the last time."

"The last time?" asked Willow. "Are you saying Wolfram and Hart opposed the Goa'uld when they were here centuries ago?"

Centuries ago thought Maybourne. What have we got here? These people know a lot more about Wolfram and Hart than I do. They seem to know about the Goa'uld as well.

"Of course we opposed the Goa'uld," replied Lilah. "Do you think we wanted those snakes calling the shots?"

"Look I can prove who I am," said Maybourne. "I can have technicians here in two hours and the Stargate up and running in three. This Stargate is now under the control of the US Government."

Willow walked over to Maybourne and looked up into his face. "Sit down over there with your friends and with Lilah and leave us alone while we check you out," she said coldly. "If you create a fuss I'll put you to sleep along with those guys." She indicated a row of sleeping captives, the Jaffa and the other people who had been operating the Stargate.

"We don't trust you...yet. Maybe we never will," Willow continued. "The fact that you're with Lilah is a big mark against you but we don't have time to waste. We've got friends on the other side of that Gate and we're going to get them back. When we've done that the Gate is all yours."

"Provided your ID's check out," said Kennedy.

Maybourne thought about arguing, then he thought about fighting. After all Angel only had two other guys with him plus a lot of young women. But there was something intimidating about Willow and Angel, particularly Willow. Certainly Lilah Morgan thought so as she said no more and went to sit down. In the end Maybourne said nothing either and signalled his men over to sit down in the place indicated.

As he sat down Maybourne tried to rationalise his response. After all these people had taken out a group of Jaffa and the Jaffa were certainly no pushovers.

"What's the plan sir?" asked Lacey quietly. "Schwarz and his boys will come looking for us soon."

"For the moment we wait..." began Maybourne but abruptly something shifted. Something was different.

"What the hell!" said Lacey, standing up. Maybourne, Lilah and the other agent also stood up and looked around.

The four of them hadn't gone anywhere but Willow, Angel and their people had. In between what had seemed to be no more than the interval between one heartbeat and the next the whole group had vanished leaving Maybourne, Lilah and the two agents. The Jaffa and some of their associates were still asleep on the ground. Some of the technicians had also disappeared.

"Where did they go?" demanded Maybourne of Lilah. "How did they do that?"

"The Stargate's gone as well!" said Lacey.

All three NID men looked at Lilah.

"Witchcraft," said Lilah. "Didn't I mention it? Willow's a witch. In fact she's one of the most powerful witches you're ever likely to meet. If you're very lucky you'll never meet her again. With those technicians and the Stargate she doesn't need your help."

"Witchcraft," said Lacey. "Oh yeah, what's the real explanation?"

"Shut up!" ordered Maybourne. "Get me a phone. Contact Schwarz. We need to secure these Jaffa and the other people before they wake up."

As Lacey and the other agent walked away Maybourne looked at Lilah.

"We need to talk," he said to her. Witches! This was the second time he had been a witness to witchcraft and both times he had been completely wrong-footed. Now how do I submit a report about all this without mentioning magic spells and witchcraft he wondered?


	10. Outer Space

**Chapter Ten: Outer Space**

Despite Jenny's promise to report back every half hour, two hours passed with no sign of her. In view of the big explosion that had closely followed Jenny's departure Wesley and Eve had begun to worry about her. There had been a number of lesser explosions following on from the first.

A debate started on whether to stay put for a while longer or whether to go looking for Jenny. Eve favoured the former, Wesley the latter. Suddenly the debate was ended by Jenny's return as she orbed in right next to them.

"Sorry about that," she apologised, "but I was sidetracked."

"Sidetracked?" asked Wesley. "You mean the big explosion?"

"In a way," replied Jenny. "By the injuries caused by the explosions."

Jenny explained that the explosions were caused by an attack from the air by the two aircraft that had passed overhead. The attack was on a unit of cavalry up ahead of them in the forest.

"Cavalry and aircraft," said Eve. "That's sounds like a mismatch."

"You'd think so," said Jenny. "But the two aircraft were destroyed. The cavalry had a lot of casualties though. I've been helping with the casualties."

"So you don't just heal mystic injuries then," said Wesley.

"So long as I'm not too obvious I can do a lot of healing," said Jenny. "All whitelighters do."

"How do you know you haven't healed some of our enemies?" asked Eve.

"They're human, they have souls, that's all I need to know," said Jenny. "As for whose side they're on that's a separate matter."

Jenny went on to explain that it wasn't the cavalry who had destroyed the aircraft, but the two witches travelling with them. The witches had been able to interfere with the weapons of the aircraft which had finally been blown up by their own bombs.

"So there's a war going on," said Wesley. "Local forces on horseback but with witches. Invaders with aircraft."

"How do you know it's not the other way round?" asked Eve. "How do you know the cavalry are locals?"

"Would you use cavalry to invade a country with its own air force?" asked Wesley.

"Yes, the cavalry and the witches are locals," confirmed Jenny. "That was clear from what I heard. The enemy come from another world."

"Since Giles was brought here by a magic portal these witches must be our main suspects for the kidnappers," said Wesley.

"Do you mean those witches?" asked Eve causing the others to turn around. Two women had just appeared and were stood some twenty yards away looking at them.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack watched the arrival of the Replicators through his binoculars from his position lying in the long grass at the top of a distant hillside. He watched as the Replicators swarmed out of their spaceship and beat a path straight towards the local Stargate.

According to the Halliwells they had done some mumbo jumbo to stop the Replicators from seeing them in their present position but Jack had given orders that everybody was still to remain out of sight and as quiet as possible. Jack and the rest of SG-1 keep their guns ready for immediate use. Prue and Phoebe were with SG-1. SG-12 were also ready to act if necessary from their position on the next hilltop with Piper and Paige.

The Replicator swarm, like a column of migrating ants, now reached the Stargate and began swarming over it and over the Dial Home Device. As Jack concentrated on what the Replicators were doing he heard a hiss of in-taken breath from Sam lying next to him.

Jack turned to see that Sam had her glasses on the Replicator spaceship so he directed his attention in that direction as well. What Sam had seen were two men who had walked out of the Replicator spaceship and were now walking down the landing ramp.

"Who are they?" whispered Jack to Sam.

Sam shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "They don't seem to be in any danger from the Replicators," she replied quietly and indeed all the Replicators were ignoring them.

Meanwhile the two men continued on their way and arrived at the Stargate. One saw the SG-12 radio and picked it up. The other began examining the DHD.

"This is crazy," said Daniel. "If we hadn't left the details of our Gate Address plus the radio set to transmit the ID they wouldn't have been able to attack the SGC."

"They'd probably have turned up there anyway," said Sam. "They might have found out a lot from SG-12, even if they only had their dead bodies."

"And they might have gone to many other places before arriving at the SGC," said Teal'c. "We would not then have this opportunity of stopping the Replicators now before they spread to many other places."

"Oh," said Sam sounding worried. "I've suddenly realised something. We might have made it too easy for them. They might get to the SGC too quickly, before Phoebe and the others arrive. By saving SG-12 we might have messed things up."

"Don't worry about it," said Phoebe. "Even if the details are different we'll still stop the attack on the SGC. I was sent a vision of the Replicator attack before I arrived there. Anyway we wouldn't be here if we weren't meant to stop them," said Phoebe.

"So what are you saying," said Sam. "Somebody or something intervened and that's why you're here, why we're here?"

"Something sent me my vision," said Phoebe, "some higher power."

Suddenly Phoebe jerked her head back. ""Wow!" she muttered.

"What did you see Phoebe?" asked Prue who could see that Phoebe had had another one of her visions.

"Well whoever sends those visions, they can still reach me here," said Phoebe quietly.

"Maybe nobody sends them," said Sam. "Have you ever thought it might just be you, just your psychic gift? There's no need to posit an unknown higher power."

"Actually we have good reason..." began Prue.

"Can we postpone the philosophy debate to another time," said Jack. "Did you see something useful?"

"Yes," said Phoebe. "Those two men. They're not men at all. They're just another sort of Replicator. We mustn't fight them, not here, because if we do we'll lose."

"What do you mean?" asked Jack.

"They're like walking bombs," said Phoebe. "If they feel threatened they'll just explode. They can put themselves back together again afterwards. We can't."

"Can't your sister just freeze them?" asked Daniel.

"Yes, but not forever," said Phoebe. "That's part of what I just saw. As soon as Piper tries to destroy them or the freeze wears off they explode. A pretty big explosion as well."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At last the Stargate closed down. The witches at the other end back on Earth, the Charmed sisters themselves in fact, had just destroyed the Replicators invading the SGC and had now broken the connection. Now SG-1 launched their attack on the Replicator spaceship.

SG-1 stormed up the ramp which was still down. They were accompanied by Paige Matthews and they were heading for the control room. They were taking a big chance because nobody knew whether there were any more regular Replicators, or any more 'human bomb' Replicators still aboard.

The attack was part of Jack's plan and the intention was to take control of the spaceship as a way of luring the Replicators away from the Stargate. It was hoped that the 'human' Replicators would hesitate to use their explosive option aboard their own ship as it might strand them on the planet, at least temporarily.

Stranding the Replicators on the planet by attacking and destroying both the spaceship and the Stargate had been discussed but rejected. For one thing, as Daniel pointed out, it was quite possible that there was a human population on the planet. The road leading away from the Stargate presumably led somewhere. Stranding Replicators on the planet would probably doom any humans living there.

The other point against stranding was that it would probably only be temporary because the Replicators, given enough time, would doubtless be able to build a replacement. Once free they would undoubtedly start searching for another Stargate.

The other option rejected was to have Piper freeze the Replicators and then clear out of the area, letting them explode and destroy the Stargate themselves. This of course might strand everybody on the planet so another solution had been decided upon. In any event Phoebe had argued against it.

"I was sent that warning to make sure we didn't do something like that," she insisted.

"It's also possible the explosive option is something of a seeding device," said Sam. "A way that the Replicators can scatter pieces of Replicator far and wide. Pieces which then, well, replicate."

Whilst SG-1 and Paige went aboard the spaceship the job of the remaining three sisters was to use a power of three spell to permanently disable the Stargate if things went wrong on the ship so that the Replicators would be unable to use the Gate. SG-12 would if necessary protect the sisters from attack whilst they were doing their magic and would use their explosives to destroy the Stargate altogether if there was no other option.

The number of actual Replicators was now much reduced because of the number that had gone through the Stargate and the fact that in their current rural location there were no immediately available materials for making others.

Normally high tech artefacts like the Stargate and the Dial Home Device would be converted into more Replicators. However just as with the Spaceship the Replicators had so far preserved them in order to help their long term goal of maximising their spread through the galaxy. Either that or there was something about the Ancient Technology that resisted the Replicators.

The Replicators that were left now became aware of the SG-1 attack and began to stream towards the spaceship. The two 'human' Replicators remained at the Stargate studying the Dial Home Device.

For a few minutes it seemed that the 'human' Replicators would not be diverted. Then the engines on the spaceship started up. The 'human' Replicators now stopped what they were doing and raced towards the spaceship.

The spaceship had not been wholly free of Replicators but they were not very thick on the ground. The guns of SG-1 were able to deal with them as they swept through the ship on the way to the control room.

SG-1 reached the control room without difficulty and without seeing any other 'human' Replicators. The control room was clear of Replicators. The spaceship was clearly not originally made for Replicators because there were seats, human type seats, in the control room. Jack and Sam immediately sat down and began familiarising themselves with the controls.

Daniel and Teal'c stood on guard at the doorway to the control room firing at those Replicators that appeared in the corridor leading to the room. They would have closed and if possible sealed the doors but there were no doors. There clearly had been doors but presumably they had been cannibalised by the Replicators.

"Stand back!" said Paige to Daniel and Teal'c and as they did so she immediately began chanting:

_"Block this door_

_Make it right_

_Close the entrance_

_Seal it tight"_

Abruptly there was a door blocking the entrance to the room. A magical door that no amount of chewing by the Replicators would tear down or break through.

"Wow!" said Daniel. "That was, well, magical."

"Indeed," said Teal'c.

Jack looked round. "You got the door shut, good." He then went back to the task in hand.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It doesn't mean she's dead," said Cordelia. "The Goa'uld have got their own witches now. They're probably using them to shield their bases the same way the Kallistien witches do. That's most likely why we can't get a read on where she is."

"OK," said Faith. "I'll buy that. Anyway Buffy's pretty hard to kill, well kill permanently. If the Golds have swallowed her I bet she gives them indigestion. So what's the latest on the war?"

"It seems like Apophis has withdrawn from the planet," said Cordelia. "Although the witches think he's left some agents behind and maybe a secret base or two."

"So they think he'll be back then," asked Faith. "What about the golden duck?"

"The witches want to concentrate on getting rid of Marduk before Apophis gets back," explained Cordelia.

"Did they get any information out of those prisoners they took?" asked Faith.

"Oh yeah," answered Cordelia. "It doesn't look good. Apophis has only used a few of his forces so far. If he wants to he can send a whole fleet of spaceships. In the past when he has been unable to control a planet he's used his fleet to destroy it from space."

"If these Golds are so powerful how come the Kallistians managed to get rid of them before?" asked Faith.

Cordelia shrugged. "Maybe they weren't so powerful then," she replied. "Anyway I..."

Cordelia broke off what she was saying to stare vacantly into space for a few moments.

"What?" asked Faith. "Was that one of your visions?"

"Oh yeah," said Cordelia coming back to herself. "We need to move, move quickly."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Once SG-12 had radioed that all of the Replicators were aboard, especially the 'human' Replicators, Jack and Sam took off. The controls were not completely unfamiliar to them so their mastery of the spaceship was adequate for the journey they had in mind.

The Replicators, regular and human, wasted some time in trying to get past Paige's door before trying other methods so Jack and Sam were able to get the ship into space and set it on course for its destination without interference. They were then able to turn to help the others.

Paige was busy casting another spell.

"What's she doing now?" whispered Jack.

"I mentioned that the Replicators would try to cut off air and pressure to this room in order to disable us," said Teal'c. "Paige is trying to cast a spell to allow us to carry on breathing if that happens."

"Ah!" said Daniel, "won't be long now. I just saw a Replicator go past the window. They're on the outside of the ship. They'll be cutting their way inside in a few minutes."

A few minutes later the Replicators did indeed start to enter the room from several points at once. All four members of SG-1 blasted away at the Replicators through the holes that had been cut into the spaceship.

By concentrating fire on the holes SG-1 were not only able to break up the Replicators but also prevent them from reforming as the broken pieces were swept off into space and left behind by the speed of the ship. After about ten minutes the attack ceased.

"Well that was unexpectedly easy," said Jack. "Guess we surprised them."

"Yes," said Sam. "They probably expected us to suffocate by now so they only sent out a few Replicators. We can expect a lot more next time."

"You think there'll be more of them crawling around out there then?" asked Paige.

"Oh yes," replied Sam. "In a very few minutes from now."

"I'll try one more spell then," said Paige. "After that it'll all be up to you guys because I'll be pretty well pooped, well apart from the big orb getaway."

Paige now put her hand on the outside wall of the spaceship and began chanting again:

_"Into space_

_Let them fall_

_Let them hold on_

_Not at all"_

Immediately Replicators began flying past the window having been dislodged from the outside hull of the ship. This continued for a while before new Replicators stopped going outside.

"Do you ever wonder how we managed in the days before we had witches along?" asked Daniel.

"It no longer seems to be a mystery as to how the Kallistians were able to overthrow the Goa'uld," said Teal'c.

"I wonder if witches had anything to do with overthrowing the Goa'uld back on Earth," said Sam.

"Who are the Goa'uld?" asked Paige.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lord Shumi was probably the most arrogant individual Giles had ever met. That, thought Giles was a remarkable conclusion for anybody who had had dealings with the old Watchers Council.

From what Giles could gather Lord Shumi had until recently been a quiet academically minded individual even though he was probably the most powerful male magic user on the planet. That had all changed recently and now Lord Shumi was the leader of an underground movement aimed at overthrowing the power of the witches.

Demonic possession, wondered Giles. When an individual changed so much and then embarked on a programme of dominance some sort of demonic possession was sometimes behind it.

A powerful mage like Lord Shumi was just the sort of person that a demon would aim to possess. If Shumi's studies had been in demonology and something had gone wrong that would explain his sudden change of character and his sudden new ability to dominate and lead. Giles's own experiences told him only to well how such things could happen.

Since meeting with Lord Shumi Giles had tried to keep out of his way as much as possible, in case Shumi became aware that Giles was not under the same control as the others. However Lord Shumi's plans were now maturing and clearly he intended to make a move soon.

Giles and the other Earth magic users it seemed were to be used in a mass assassination plot against the leading Kallistien witches. Giles and the others had been given a Kallistien Grimoire or spell book. Their job was to produce and maintain a fog during a forthcoming summit meeting of the leading witches. This spell was to be aimed at fogging both the mind and the vision. Under its cover Lord Shumi and his followers would aim to kill the witches, or at least as many witches as they could.

Even as the plan was being explained to him Giles realised that something was wrong, very wrong. There was no way that Shumi could be unaware of the very limited magic ability amongst the three men from Earth. To expect them to cast a spell that would have the desired affect in disabling a group of powerful witches was ridiculous. Something else was going on.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"The sooner we try it, the better chance we have of taking them by surprise," said Willow. "The longer we take, the more suspicious they'll be that something is wrong at this end."

"OK," said Angel, "But that Gate can be connected to any number of other worlds. From what those guys said when you questioned them you can dial up another world if you have the code but when the Gate is powered up just about anybody can dial up here and come visit us. Do we want that?"

"It would mean having to have a strong team down here in the basement pretty well permanently," said Gunn. "Strong enough to deal with whatever comes through the Gate the next time it opens."

"He's right," agreed Tara. "Because whoever stays on this side of the Gate has to leave it powered up so everybody can get back home but the next people to come through could be, well anybody."

"Including Marduk's mighty big army," said Xander. "With a lot more of those Jaffa."

"Couldn't we set a time for when we open it," suggested Dawn. "That way we can cut down on the risk."

"Time doesn't always go at the same speed on other worlds," said Angel. "I should know."

"And who knows what might happen on the other side," said Kennedy. "We might have to get out in a hurry."

"So you're saying whoever stays here has to be on guard 24/7 in case some sort of invasion army decides to stop by," said Anya. "Why don't we just blow this thing up and forget it?"

"And leave Buffy stranded? I don't think so," said Willow. "Anyway it's not as bad as all that," said Willow. "For one thing we've got this Stargate inside slayer HQ Sunnydale so no weapons will work here. For another, we are the people who defeated the Hordes of Hell so a little thing like dealing with an off world invasion shouldn't be so difficult."

"But we had all those other slayers then," said Amy. "As well as Buffy, Faith, Cordy and the charmed sisters."

"Why don't we contact the Halliwell sisters now?" suggested Gwen. "If they were here they'd be able to deal with just about anything that came through."

Willow glanced at Tara questioningly.

"I'm sure they'd help if they could," said Tara. "But they have responsibilities of their own. I don't see that they would be able to just sit here watching the Gate. They could be called away at any time and where would we be then?"

"So we've got to think of something else then," said Willow. "I've got an idea."


	11. Escape

**Chapter Eleven: Escape**

The Jaffa opened the door to the room and pushed Buffy inside. Or rather he tried to push Buffy inside but Buffy didn't push. She did a lightning turn around and hit the Jaffa, hit him hard. He fell as if poleaxed and didn't move.

Buffy quickly picked up the body from the ground and carried the Jaffa inside the room before anybody else appeared in the corridor. She placed the unconscious body on the bed that was in the corner. A quick search of the Jaffa produced a strange looking hand weapon and a set of what might be keys. Buffy pocketed both. She then tore strips off the robe of the Jaffa, tied him and tethered him to the bed.

On leaving the room Buffy tried to find some way to lock the door but the keys, if that's what they were, didn't fit any hole that she could see. Not wishing to waste any more time she settled for firing the strange weapon at what looked to be some sort of lock mechanism. She tested the door and found it would no longer open so she hoped the Jaffa would not be able to raise the alarm for some time after he woke up.

Buffy now set about exploring the premises, and seeing if she could find a way out. She had been taken by the Jaffa along several corridors, interrupted by a trip down several levels in an elevator before arriving at her present position. She now once again had her sword and knives which she had retrieved from the unconscious Jaffa.

Always best to walk around places like this as if you have every right to be there thought Buffy. There seem to be all sorts of odd characters in this place she thought remembering the people she had seen whilst in the custody of the Jaffa. She hoped that one more might not cause any alarm.

As she began to walk away from the room where she had left the Jaffa Buffy had a sudden thought. If she was being taken to some sort of detention area there might be other prisoners around there. They might be people who would be on her side. She turned back the way she had come and examined the corridor once again.

Ten doors, five on each side, regularly spaced. Cells? Buffy went to the first door on the left, the door opposite to the one where she had left the unconscious Jaffa. Locked. However a locked door wasn't usually a big barrier for a slayer and so it proved this time. A little super-powered force and Buffy successfully broke open the door.

There was indeed somebody inside, somebody who was presumably a prisoner in view of the locked door. Lying on a bed but now having been woken up by Buffy's entrance was Drusilla.

But Drusilla wasn't the main point of interest for Buffy as she entered the room. The room had a large, full length window in the wall opposite the door. Buffy walked over to the window and looked out. Or rather she looked down because it was perfectly clear from looking through the window that the room was part of a spaceship or space station that was in orbit far above a planet, a planet that was certainly not the Earth.

After finding Drusilla, Buffy searched all of the other rooms in the corridor only to find them all empty. There were therefore no other captives to release. The corridor seemed to be in a particularly remote part of the space ship or space station and nobody had come along to disturb them.

Buffy and Drusilla exchanged details of how they had each come to arrive on the Goa'uld vessel. Drusilla had been meeting a coven of witches with whom she sometimes worked when they had all been attacked by unknown enemies with energy weapons. Drusilla had helped the others to escape but had been hit by fire from an energy weapon at the last minute and had not woken up until Buffy had come into the room.

Buffy explained about the Goa'uld and that it seemed they were presently located aboard a space vessel belonging to one of the Goa'uld which was in orbit about another planet, probably the planet Kallistien. It seemed possible that Drusilla had been brought through a Stargate, in fact the Stargate that Buffy believed she had seen when she arrived on the Spaceship.

It was at that stage that Drusilla informed Buffy about the SGC and the involvement of the Halliwell sisters in dealing with the little metal monsters.

"Let me get this straight," Buffy said. "As well as these Goa'uld and their magic portals and Stargates kidnapping people we've now got the military people of this SGC and who knows who else interested in witches."

"From what you said they only snatched you and Faith because they thought you were witches," Drusilla pointed out. "Same for me I expect,"

"Well whatever, it's got to stop," Buffy had said. "Putting the world of slayers and witches with Government and technology and aliens from outer space, well it shouldn't be done that's all. That sort of thing never works well."

"I think you need to find something to slay," said Drusilla. "Just like I need to feed."

After exploring the other rooms in the corridor Buffy and Drusilla had arrived back outside the door to the room where Buffy had secured the Jaffa. Drusilla now forced open the door and went into the room.

"Don't worry," said Drusilla as she walked over to the unconscious Jaffa. "I won't kill him."

It went against all of Buffy's vampire slayer's instincts but if Drusilla needed the blood it made sense for her to take it from the Jaffa.

Drusilla completed her feeding. "He's not dead," she said. "This way I'm stronger and he won't be in any condition to raise the alarm or cause us any trouble for at least a day, maybe longer. He certainly won't be getting up off that bed for hours yet."

After feeling the man's pulse and confirming he was still alive Buffy followed Drusilla from the room and used the captured weapon to do her best to seal up the door again.

"So where do we go from here?" asked Buffy. "You're the one who sees the future, the one with the hot line to the mystic whosits. Any idea what's gonna happen next?"

"Don't you have prophetic dreams yourself?" asked Drusilla. "Prophetic slayer dreams."

"You want me go to sleep?" asked Buffy sarcastically. "I don't think so. Anyway most of my muddled dreams only make sense after everything is all over. Do you have any other suggestions based on your second sight?" Second sight didn't warn her about being captured by the Goa'uld Buffy thought. Or perhaps it was meant to happen like that so she could come here and help out.

"Don't ask me," said Drusilla. "These things come when they want to, not when I want them. Over to you. You're the fearless leader."

"OK," said Buffy who already had a plan in mind. A plan that went against her wish to have nothing more to do with the Military and Government but the only plan that she could see made any sort of sense.

"In that case," Buffy continued. "I vote we see if we can find some way to go back through that Stargate. If we can get back to Earth you can take me to the SGC and we'll see if we can get them to link up with the Kallistien witches and get back all the kidnapped people."

"And if they don't agree?" asked Drusilla. "How do we get back here to help your friends?"

"Oh I wouldn't worry about that," said Buffy. "Prue and her sisters can be pretty persuasive it they want to." So can Willow she thought. I'm sure this SGC wouldn't want their Stargate to stop working would they?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Replicators are suspiciously quiet thought Daniel as he looked through the window to try to see if anything was going on out there. In fact it was strange that so far the 'human' Replicators seemed to have done nothing. Maybe they're busy making more little Replicators out of the fabric of the ship he thought, if they can. On their journey through the ship to the control room it had been obvious to SG-1 that much of the ship had already been cannibalised for this purpose.

SG-1 had patched the holes made by the Replicators as best they could. Paige's spell had preserved them from losing their air and being depressurised but as Jack said, "Best to take no chances." Jack never raised it as a query because he didn't want to upset Paige but he wondered if all of her magic unravelled if anything happened to her.

Suddenly the intercom burst into life: "I don't know where you think you're going," said a voice. "But if you don't hand over control of the ship to us we will destroy it and everybody in it, including you."

"Stay alert," hissed Jack to everybody before turning on the intercom to reply. "This will be the start of their next move to take us out."

"Sounds like you've been taking lessons from the bad guys' manual of empty threats," replied Jack on the intercom. "You don't get it do you? The reason why we've taken you and all your little friends out here is to destroy you. If that means we get destroyed as well then so be it."

"Oh we won't destroy the Replicators," said the voice, "or ourselves. You know better than that. We will all come together again after the explosion, but you certainly won't."

"And just how do you intend to deal with the conservation of momentum?" asked Sam. "We've been accelerating this ship for hours now and of course everybody and everything aboard is travelling at the same speed. If you blow it up all the little Replicator pieces will still be travelling at an enormous speed into outer space, and you'll have no engine to slow you down. You'll probably keep going until infinity. We don't really care whether you reconstitute yourselves or not."

"We've got a few more tricks that you haven't allowed for," said another voice, this time the voice of a 'human' Replicator actually in the room with them.

The Replicator had come up through the floor of the control room. It had been able to enter the space underneath without going outside the spaceship and falling foul of Paige's 'non-stick' spell on the hull.

There were no 'normal' Replicators with the 'human' Replicator. With many of the limited number of Replicators on board having been swept into space perhaps there really aren't that many left thought Daniel, even if they have now made a few more. Like the rest of SG-1 Daniel aimed his gun at the 'human' Replicator but for the moment they all held their fire.

"You see the engine will still be there," continued the Replicator. "It'll just be damaged or in pieces. It won't take long for us to rebuild it, probably rebuild it better than it is now. We've done things like that before. Anyway we don't have to blow up the whole ship to kill all of you and we've now got Replicators in all the best places to rebuild after the explosions."

Jack and Sam exchanged glances. "So what do you propose?" asked Jack. "What you say might be true but it might not. You just might lose a few essential pieces along the way. You'd be taking a big gamble and you might lose. You need to offer us a deal."

"Hand over control of the ship to us and we'll leave you in peace back on that planet," said the Replicator. "We'll be on our way and nobody gets hurt."

"And you just fly away in your spaceship?" asked Daniel who smelt a rat.

"We go on our way and leave you in peace is what I said," replied the Replicator. "We've no reason to harm you. If you prefer we'll let you leave peacefully and won't follow you through to your base."

"Quite clearly you intend using the Stargate yourselves," said Teal'c, "and that we cannot allow."

Suddenly alarms began to sound throughout the ship which had noticeably heated up in the past few minutes. This didn't concern SG-1 and Paige but puzzled the Replicator. He turned towards the control panel and then noticed for the first time that the spaceship wasn't headed for outer space at all. It was heading directly into the sun which was looming larger and larger in the forward window.

The Replicator turned back towards the humans only to see them all gathered around Paige. The alarms were what they had been waiting for, their signal that the time had come to leave. They all disappeared as Paige orbed back to the planet.

The Replicator didn't waste time wondering where the humans had gone and how, but began to press buttons on the control panel. Was it too late to divert the ship away from the sun it wondered? No it concluded, there was still time.

Although travelling at high speed and still accelerating the Replicator calculated from the control panel information that he could still change course and pull clear of the sun's gravity. Once that had been done any damage to the ship could be repaired.

Unlike humans, Replicators could take massive G forces and would not be permanently damaged by a violent change of direction. Clearly the humans hadn't allowed for this in their plans thought the Replicator. The only limiting factor was the structural integrity of the ship itself and this would not cause the break up of the ship before it escaped the Sun's gravity.

Now all I need to do is...thought the Replicator. At that moment the explosive charges planted by SG-1 in different parts of the control room went off and the space ship disintegrated.

Yes, given time the Replicators could reform as the pieces were attracted to each other and given more time the reformed Replicators could rebuild the spaceship and its engine, but there wasn't anything like enough time. All the scattered fragments of spaceship and Replicators were still heading straight for the sun. As they fell into the sun they continued to accelerate and heat up. In a very short time there would no longer even be fragments.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The High Council was very much a council of war. A war that was not going at all well. Now that Marduk was free of the threat of Apophis, at least for the time being, he had started making ground against the Kallistien witches and the Kallistien armed forces.

The strongest magic users had gathered with the high command of the armed forces and the political leadership to plan a way of combating Marduk in the short term and in the long term plan a way to deal with Apophis when he returned.

"I'll know him when I see him," said Cordelia to Faith. "There, over there," she added. "That's him, the guy in the red robes."

After her vision Cordelia had rushed off with Faith to the High Council building. Her vision had made it clear that there was no time to go through official channels with her warning. In any event judging by the vision she shouldn't trust anybody she didn't have to.

The man concerned had just entered the High Council Hall, a building which was guarded by armed guards and warded by magic. It was the meeting place of all the Kallistien big cheeses, and outsiders, most specifically off world travellers, were not invited.

"So what next?" asked Faith. "Do we wait for him to come out or what?"

"We've got to get into the Council Hall," said Cordelia. "We don't have much time before he makes his move. We've got to be there to stop him." On the way to the Hall, Cordelia had given Faith details of what the vision had shown her.

Cordelia now went up to the main Council Hall entrance with Faith close behind her. "Who was that man, the man in the red robes who just went in?" Cordelia asked the guard.

"That's Lord Shumi," said the guard. He's on the High Council."

"He's a traitor," said Cordelia. "He's going to do something against the Council and we've got to stop him."

The guard called over his officer who was not at all impressed by Cordelia's allegation. "Lord Shumi is most definitely not a traitor," said the officer. "If it wasn't for him we'd have lost this war a long time ago. It was he who found out about the Goa'uld and what they were up to."

"That was before he was taken over by a Goa'uld himself," said Cordelia. "Let us pass. I've got to speak to the High Council and warn them. I can prove to them what I'm saying is true."

"You're an off-worlder yourself aren't you?" asked the Officer. "That means you're not allowed in here. We have strict orders to admit Council members only."

"Let me put it this way," said Faith. "If Cordy's wrong what's the worst that can happen? You get told off. But she is a powerful witch and she does have the power to see the future. If she's right but you don't let us in, a lot of people are going to die." And if you argue about it much longer I'm gonna take out you and all of your guards Faith mentally added to herself.

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After the spaceship had taken off with SG-1 and Paige aboard, the three Halliwells had carried out a power of three spell to destroy any Replicators that lingered in the area. The members of SG-12 would have been deeply sceptical of this had they not already seen some evidence of the sisters' power. As it was, nothing appeared to happen, possibly because all of the Replicators had indeed left, either through the Gate or back aboard their spaceship.

The sisters remained on standby to disable the Stargate if necessary but had decided not to take any action unless it became necessary. The Stargate was probably their only way home and, with the Replicators disposed of, everybody thought it best to leave it untouched unless and until action became necessary.

To give themselves the option of escaping via the Stargate but of making sure it was not subsequently used by the Replicators, SG-12 had packed their supply of explosives around the Stargate. The sisters had worked out a way to amplify the explosion to reduce the Stargate to dust immediately after it had been used for a getaway.

"The Stargate seems to be working OK," said Doctor Sarfraz. "We could dial home now."

"No!" said Prue. "You can't do that. We can't go home yet otherwise we'll be back before we left and that would mess up everything."

"You mean even when Paige and the others get back we have to just sit here waiting for time to tick away?" asked Piper. "How boring is that? Can't we do a jump forward spell so when we go through the Gate we arrive back after we left?"

"Better not," replied Prue. "If we're only a little out it would mess everything up. The boring option is the safest option."

"Perhaps these nice Stargate people know some place where we could take a holiday," suggested Phoebe. "How about it Major?" she asked Major Larkham. "Could you dial up somewhere good? Sun, sea and sand plus a few hot guys."

"Hey," said Piper, "I'm a married woman."

"So am I," said Major Larkham wistfully.

"Yeah," said Phoebe. "But what a chance to cheat. Spend a day elsewhere and still get back just after you left."

"How long do you think it will be before SG-1 gets back?" asked Doctor Sarfraz.

"I don't know," said Prue. "They're going to hang on as long as they can to stop any chance of the Replicators stopping the ship diving into the sun. Paige will orb them back here at the last minute."

"What's up sergeant?" asked Major Larkham as the sergeant came up to her having rapidly descended his observation post on top of a nearby hill.

"I've been watching that dust ma'am," said the Sergeant pointing over to the west. The Major put her glasses to her eyes and studied the distant cloud of dust.

"It's coming this way," added the Sergeant. "Whoever or whatever it is it'll be here in a couple of hours."


	12. Showdown

**Chapter Twelve: Showdown**

Jenny had not been as unobtrusive as she had intended when she helped with the casualties, at least not to those with witch sight. When she had left the scene of the air attack to step into the forest and orb away she had been followed by the two witches. Even though Jenny had orbed directly back to join the others, the witches had been able to track her direction and were able to follow.

The witches were not hostile in view of the help Jenny had given in treating the casualties but they wanted to know who and what she was, who her companions were and what they wanted. Wesley wasn't sure he trusted the witches but decided to tell them the truth anyway. It would probably be risky trying to lie to witches of unknown powers and strength.

Wesley introduced himself and the others and explained that they came from another world Earth. He went on to explain about Giles being kidnapped via a magic portal and the intention of the group to find him and rescue him.

"Well whoever kidnapped your Mr Giles it certainly wasn't us," said Nellien the red headed witch, the older and taller of the two witches. "I suppose some of the higher ups might know how to do it but that sort of thing's completely against the code."

"Anyway I did hear that the Goa'uld have been kidnapping witches from some other worlds and getting them to work for them," said Susa, the other witch. Susa's most notable feature was the mountain of black hair piled up on her head, possibly in compensation for her short stature. "I bet the Goa'uld are responsible for taking your Mr Giles."

"The Gould?" asked Wesley.

"Goa'uld," corrected Nellien who then explained about the war going on for control of the planet between the Kallistians and the Goa'uld. She explained about the Goa'uld being parasites and how they controlled their hosts.

"Do you think they might put one of these parasites inside Giles?" asked Wesley.

"Most of the people who work for the Goa'uld aren't controlled by a Goa'uld parasite inside them," explained Nellien. "But I don't know what determines whether they put one of those things inside somebody or not. When you find your Mr Giles you need to be careful. If he does have a parasite inside him he'll be your enemy."

"As far as we can tell Giles is somewhere north of here," said Jenny. "Is that Goa'uld territory?"

"None of it's Goa'uld territory," said Susa sharply. "This is our world, not theirs. But there is Goa'uld occupied territory to the north, and on the other side of the White Sea. That's where those flying machines came from."

"If we help you to find your Mr Giles will you help us against the Goa'uld?" asked Nellien. "I can see none of you are witches," she added giving Jenny an appraising look because Jenny had still not explained what she was, "but I imagine there are other witches where you come from, not just your Mr Giles."

"Giles does know about magic but he's not exactly a witch," said Jenny. "If these Goa'uld have been kidnapping witches from our world then it's our business to stop them," she continued emphatically. "So we will help you do that. We do have a few friends who are witches and I'm sure they'd want to stop something like that." Jenny decided not to explain about being a Whitelighter and her own responsibility for the welfare of witches, unless she really had to.

"Of course some of them might already have been snatched themselves," suggested Eve.

"We'll send a message to the capital. They can..." began Nellien who then broke off because a ring on her right middle finger had started hissing and flashing on and off with a green light, "as soon as we've dealt with this latest attack."

The two witches now grasped hands, concentrated and vanished after a brief chant. As they did so the sound of further aircraft and explosions could be heard to the north.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nine men were gathered in a room, a room in a tall building with windows overlooking the Kallistien High Council Hall. Giles and the other two men from Earth were present plus Togunus and two armed guards together with three archers ready to fire out of the windows.

The plan, as explained by Togunus, was that the magic users from Earth would perform their spell on some small herbal packages which were attached to the arrows of the archers. Once the spell casting was complete the arrows would be fired into various open windows in the Council Hall.

The effect, as planned by Shumi, was that the arrows would be focuses of magic force and from them would spread real and magic fog throughout the Council Hall. This was designed not only to fog vision but to spread a general feeling of confusion and panic. Shumi and a small group of followers inside the hall had taken precautions to protect themselves from the affects of the fog.

Now either Shumi's an idiot thought Giles and I don't believe that for a moment or something else is going to happen. A medium strength witch on her own should be able to dissipate such a spell and that said nothing about the magical defences doubtless already placed over the Council Hall.

Giles didn't see how the attack itself could possibly succeed unless there were other attacks planned at the same time about which he had been told nothing. He thought this very likely.

Giles had his own theory about Shumi's real plans. In his opinion what Shumi planned was something like the Reichstag fire. The Earth magic users were to be the fall guys in the attack. If it failed, as seemed very likely, the Earthmen would be blamed and this would put a block on any future cooperation between Earth and Kallistien.

Whether or not the attack succeeded in killing the witches Giles expected Shumi would try to take control and overthrow the established government. He would probably have a plan to claim emergency powers in view of the crisis in the same way that many tyrants had seized power in the past on Earth.

As circumstances dictated Shumi could help in the attacks on the witches or act as a saviour in repulsing those very attacks. As the hero of the hour and perhaps the strongest surviving magic user he might be able effect a complete takeover.

The fact that the three Earth men were still wearing Earth clothing Giles took as evidence confirming his suspicions. They had been brought to the city in a closed and curtained carriage from the house in the country. Quite likely all three would be found dead or would be killed 'trying to escape' and would thus be unavailable for questioning after the event and unable to implicate Shumi, if that was his real name.

The spell casting began and Giles's two companions began to chant. Giles was caught up in a fit of coughing and pulled out a handkerchief. The coughing was a fake coughing fit designed to disrupt the spell as Giles began to mutter quite different words under the cover of each cough as his two colleagues continued their chant. In this Giles was helped by the way the others were controlled. They had been told to start the spell and simply continued, totally ignoring Giles and not waiting for him to finish coughing.

As the spell casting continued smoke began to pour from the packages on the floor in front of the three Earth men. The fog and confusion spell was working but not in the way planned. Giles' intervention meant that the spell began to operate on the herbal packages whilst they were still in the room, not after they had been fired into the High Council Hall.

Fog and confusion was Giles's chance to make his escape. His first target was Togunus. With his handkerchief over his nose and mouth to minimise the effects of the smoke on him, Giles leapt forward and punched Togunus on the jaw. He fell to the floor unconscious.

By now the other men in the room were dazed and confused and ignored Giles as he pulled off Togunus's robe and put it on over his own clothes. Giles left the room and quickly made his way along the corridor to the back stairs which he had observed on the way in. He was barely through the door at the end of the corridor when he heard the approach of a group of people into the corridor he had just vacated. Doubtless the local constabulary, conveniently tipped off thought Giles, or just possibly Shumi's killers with orders to leave nobody alive.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Having talked their way into the Council Hall Cordelia and Faith still found themselves with problems. Lord Shumi had just risen to his feet and had started to speak to the assembly. It was hardly possible for the two women to rush out into the middle of the assembly and stop him without immediately being seized and thrown out or arrested.

"What now?" asked Faith looking at Cordelia. "You're the one with the visions. What do you want me to um...?

"Those guys over there," said Cordelia without pointing but looking at the area behind the right hand bank of seats. "The three men under that window. They're armed. They'll be pulling out weapons in a minute. Get closer and take them out when they make a move."

The officer who had escorted the two Earth women inside heard this. "No weapons are allowed in here," he explained. "Anyway guns won't work inside the Council Hall. You must come with me to speak to the chairman."

"They're not exactly guns," said Cordelia. "And we don't have time to talk to the chairman now. Better move now Faith, there's not much time."

Faith set off to go to the other side of the chamber. The unhappy officer attempted to restrain her with a grab at her arm but Faith shook him off without difficulty and the officer hurried after her, still insisting that things be done his way. Meanwhile Lord Shumi was reaching a climax in his speech:

"...if we don't do something straightaway the traitors and off-worlders will destroy us," he declared.

As if on cue, as it probably was, the building was rocked by an explosion. An explosion on the roof. However the protections held and there was no damage visible. The explosion was followed by a moment of complete silence.

"We've got to get to the shelters!" shouted Shumi, breaking the silence. "We've been betrayed!" At that another explosion went off on top of or above the roof and this time plaster and dust fell from the ceiling. People began to move out of their seats.

Shumi remained standing in front of his seat and turned to the armed group behind him. Cordelia took her chance and ran into the middle of the assembly and jumped up onto the central table.

"Stop!" she shouted. "It's a trick! Stay here! You're protected here. The shelters are booby trapped. Stay here!"

"It's an off-worlder!" shouted a voice from the back of the hall, presumably a supporter of Shumi. "She's part of the plot!"

"Where are the guards?" shouted another voice and "Arrest her!" demanded another. Bedlam broke out and some of the guards from the entranceway started towards Cordelia.

On a few important occasions before, Cordelia had felt the power rise in her and now it was happening again. Things had always worked out OK when it happened before. Now she trusted it to do the same so she didn't resist. She began to glow and as she did the glow quickly spread out into the hall until it included the whole area of the assembly. It then slowly faded leaving everybody stunned but once again calm, quiet and no longer hostile. The guards had stopped, confused about what to do next.

Unlike most of the rest of the occupants of the hall Shumi had not moved and was still stood up in front of his seat from where he had been speaking. Also unlike most of the others he was not calm but was clearly furious at Cordelia's intervention.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Giles ran down the stairs he decided he had to get into the hall where the council was meeting. He needed to speak to somebody about what was really happening and if possible get them to do something to stop it.

Giles knew it was a risk even going to the hall because he might be accused of being a saboteur or worse but he had decided that his only hope of getting home was to somehow contact the witches, contact Shumi's enemies and this was probably his best chance to do so.

As Giles exited the back door of the building and went around to the front where it faced the Council Hall he heard explosions coming from the roof of the Council Hall. He now knew he was right in at least some of what he suspected in that the magic attack by the Earthmen was not the main attack on the building.

Normally Giles would have been confronted by guards in trying to enter the Council Hall but the explosions and perhaps other events had created a great deal of confusion. People had rushed out of the hall including some of the armed guards who were now looking upwards at the roof. Other guards inside seemed to be distracted. Giles was therefore able to slip inside the building without anybody stopping him.

Inside the building Giles found the main doors to the Council Chamber wide open and unguarded. He went straight inside. His first sight was of Cordelia at the end of her glowing phase. Dead silence and calm followed to be finally broken by Shumi who left his chair and began walking down the stairs between the rows of seats towards Cordelia.

"Watch out Cordy!" shouted Giles. "He's possessed. He's controlled by some sort of demon."

Shumi stopped and held out his hand towards Giles. Something on his hand glowed and a light shot out towards Giles. Giles threw himself to one side, just avoiding the blast which crashed into the wall behind him. Giles looked up from his position on the floor in case a second blast followed and he had to dodge again. As he did so he saw a second familiar figure as Shumi was hit from behind by Faith.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Faith had made her way over towards the group of three as directed by Cordelia. She was followed by the officer who fussed all the way: "They can't possibly have weapons. Even if they do they aren't going to give them to you. I really can't believe that Lord Shumi could be a traitor..."

Just before the two of them reached the group of three the first explosion on the roof went off. Just about everybody flinched, ducked down and looked up. Not the three men. It was obvious to Faith that they had expected the explosion. Faith stopped and looked carefully at the men. There was something about them: Jaffa! Suddenly Faith was certain they were Jaffa despite the absence of any visible tattoos.

The second explosion went off and the Jaffa reached inside their clothes for their weapons. They had spotted Cordelia moving into the centre of the hall and had decided to stop her. They totally ignored the apparently harmless young woman now standing only a few feet away.

Faith didn't hold back. She knew that if she did she would be in trouble with three Jaffa, especially in view of their weapons. She took down her first opponent with a fast one two: a savage low kick to the stomach and a terrific right cross to the jaw. The first Jaffa went down and didn't move.

A right footed kick to the chest of a second Jaffa sent him flying back into the wall behind him with his weapon flying out of his hand. The third Jaffa had now had enough time to bring his weapon to bear. He missed however as Faith dropped low immediately after kicking the second Jaffa. The stun beam hit the officer behind Faith and he fell unconscious.

The third Jaffa was given no time to make a second shot as Faith took him down with a leg sweep. She followed up with a punch to the head as the man hit the floor and he stopped moving. Faith immediately rolled aside and to her feet to avoid the fast recovering second Jaffa who had now recovered from the blow Faith had given him.

Faith completed the demolition of the three Jaffa with a flying kick which took out her final opponent. As she did so she heard a call from a very familiar voice: Giles, shouting his warning to Cordelia.

As usual Cordelia was tired from the use of her power. Lord Shumi was advancing towards her but had paused to fire at Giles. Nobody else in the building really knew what was going on and hesitated to take sides. Most of them had no idea of who Cordelia was. However not everybody remained motionless as Faith now took off towards Shumi moving at a speed impossible for any normal human.

Shumi, having missed his shot at Giles now had a clear shot at Cordelia but he had no chance to aim whatever was in his hand as Faith hit him from behind. They tumbled down the stairs together. Faith immediately rolled back to her feet but so did Shumi. Now he was in an absolute rage and his eyes lit up as if there was a power source inside his head.

"He's a Goa'uld!" shouted one of the onlookers who recognised what they were seeing.

Shumi made to grab something inside his robe but Faith attacked before he could do so by delivering a fierce kick to the head. The Goa'uld was knocked back sprawling onto the stairs. From that position he raised his hand, the hand with the weapon. Faith responded by driving the knife that she had drawn into the hand and the weapon it contained.

Shumi screamed and Faith jumped back away from the writhing body. Smoke appeared coming from the damaged weapon, the knife and the injured hand and then there were flames. Very quickly Shumi's whole body was covered in flames and everybody nearby backed away. The flames continued and in a remarkably short time what had been Lord Shumi and the Goa'uld inside him had been converted to a charred lump. Now there was complete silence in the hall.

The silence was broken by an officer running into the hall. "The Goa'uld are attacking! They're landing troops!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Without Paige or Leo present the sisters were not able to orb over to see what was approaching, what was throwing up the dust in the distance. Major Larkham however was satisfied that the dust was consistent with approaching people or what passed for people on that planet.

"I can't see that a weather system would act like that. They're going faster than marching pace but nothing like as fast as they would if they had vehicles," she said. "I would guess something like a cavalry unit."

"There's another possibility," suggested Phoebe. "It could just be animals, perhaps a stampede of the local wildlife."

"If they are cavalry they should be too low tech to cause us any bother," said Sergeant Rees.

"Depends on how many there are," said the Major. "It looks like a lot from the size of that dust cloud. We might be able to kill them but that's not what we're here for. As you know standing orders are not to shoot first except in very exceptional circumstances."

"It's not always about guns and technology," said Prue. "The locals might have other abilities...like us."

"I've got an idea," said Piper.


	13. Through the Gate

**Chapter Thirteen: Through the Gate**

To the alarm of the members of SG-1 Paige fainted as she arrived back on the planet with them. She was caught by Teal'c and lowered to the ground. Sam knelt down at her side and examined her.

"I think she's just exhausted," said Sam. "That was a mighty big jump, several million miles."

Paige opened her eyes and took a deep breath. "I didn't think we were going to make it," she said. "When I orb I'm usually there straight away. That just went on and on and on. I thought we were stuck in some sort of limbo. I'm not trying any more outer space orbs. I might never arrive."

"OK," said Jack looking around. "Where is everybody?"

Paige had successfully orbed them back to the planet near to where the Replicator spaceship had taken off. However there was nobody around, no SG-12 and no Halliwell sisters.

Teal'c stayed with Sam and Paige while Jack and Daniel walked over the hill towards the Stargate. As they crested the hill they could see that they had problems beyond the absence of SG-12 and the witches.

"It's gone!" said Daniel who began running over towards where the Gate had been.

Jack followed more slowly. "It's been destroyed," he said. "Blown up." He didn't sound surprised. The evidence of an explosion was clear in the surrounding area. A large crater had taken the place of the Stargate and the DHD. The destruction was complete, leaving no debris scattered around.

"Why?" asked Daniel. "Who would have done it?"

"Larkham I expect," replied Jack. "I ordered her to set charges around the Gate, go through it and destroy it behind her if there was any danger of the Replicators taking control of it again. Looks like there might be more Replicators around." Jack held his gun at the ready and slowly turned around to search the surrounding area but saw no threats.

"So how do we get home?" asked Daniel.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"OK, it works," said Willow standing up after ending the spell. "That's our standby in an emergency."

Willow's suggestion had been to try to open a magic portal to the world on the other side of the Stargate, that is to the world from where Marduk's Jaffa had travelled to Earth. Willow and Tara, the two witches who would be travelling to the other world, had succeeded in opening such a portal.

The portal had opened in what looked like an empty corridor. Willow and Tara had quickly closed it down before anybody spotted it. They had used the dialling code of the destination provided by the captured technicians as part of the spell to help them correctly identify the other world.

Although the portal could be used to travel to the other world Willow preferred to use the Stargate for the outward journey. "That portal could be quite close to the Stargate or it could be a long way away," she explained. "A world is a big place and we could take months just finding out where Buffy and the others are. On the other side of that Stargate we're almost certain to find somebody who knows where they are."

"But once you're on the other side can't Tara just orb over to wherever they are and pick them up?" Dawn asked.

"I don't think so," Tara replied. "I don't know any reference points on another world. I probably won't be able to do much orbing at all, at least not at first. Orbing's sort of automatic on Earth but I expect it'll be different on another world."

It was agreed that those staying behind would close down the Stargate a few minutes after the others went through. They would stop it functioning by dismantling it if necessary and powering it down. It could not then be used to send unwelcome visitors to Sunnydale and would not therefore have to be permanently guarded.

"If we don't come straight back then close it down," ordered Willow. "If we want you to keep it open one of us will come back straight away."

Those left behind would power the Stargate up again for an hour every day when everybody left behind would be present to guard against unwanted visitors. If those who went to the other world needed to come back via the Stargate they would dial at the appropriate time.

If time was different on the other world or if the travellers simply lost track of time they would keep dialling until they got a connection. In an emergency or otherwise if convenient Willow and Tara would create a portal back to Earth with the help of the Earth dialling code.

The team to go through the Stargate was Willow, Tara, Xander, Angel, Kennedy and Gwen. The plan was for Angel and Xander to be dressed like Jaffa, with fake tattoos and for the women to pretend to be captured witches. This subterfuge was unlikely to last more than a very brief time but would hopefully give them enough of an edge to enable them to surprise the people operating the Gate on the other side.

Not everybody agreed that it was a good idea for Angel to come with them: "We might have to spend time out in the sunshine," pointed out Xander. "Angel can't do that. He could hold us up while we wait for the sun to go down."

"Marduk's base is indoors from what the prisoners say," said Angel. "It's inside his Operating Base Unit whatever that is, so no problem about me being with you there. If I have to stay at the base or come back here afterwards then so be it but I think you'll need me." I certainly think Buffy, Faith and Cordy will need me Angel thought but anyway I'm not staying behind, whatever Xander Harris might think.

"Angel comes with us," said Willow, emphasising her position as leader. She was well aware of Xander's opinion of Angel from way back but her opinion had always been very different. Having Angel along improved their chances of rescuing Buffy and that was that.

"Amy, Anya, Dawn and Gunn will remain on guard here whenever the Gate is powered up," said Willow. "They can shut down the Gate if anybody unwelcome comes through. The stasis spell that we've set up will automatically operate on anybody who comes through without one of our amulets."

"And I can use this piece to stun if there's anyone who isn't affected by the spell," said Gunn holding up one of the captured Zat guns.

"Everybody ready?" asked Willow looking around the assembled group after Angel and Xander finished putting on their Jaffa robes. Everybody agreed. "Then dial up the Gate," she ordered and Dawn began doing just that.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy knew they couldn't keep this up much longer. Sooner or later somebody would realise that they were not the technicians they were pretending to be. Buffy and Drusilla had been able to find a room with a selection of clothes and had disguised themselves as members of the crew of the space vessel. The occupants of the vessel seemed to come in all shapes and sizes so finding something suitable had not been difficult.

Thankfully there were maps of the various decks at the main intersecting corridors. Although they could not read the writing next to them the diagrams were clear enough for them to orient themselves. The vessel was enormous but at least it was logically laid out.

After some exploring conducted whilst trying to give the impression that they were busy and off somewhere on important business they found their way back to the main communication centre where the ship's Stargate was located.

The communications centre was a large area, like an aircraft hanger which in a way it was because the original purpose of the area was most likely a launch bay for the small alien looking planes that were parked at one end.

At the other end were the Stargate and the ramp leading up to it. In front of the Stargate were various control consoles with about a half dozen technicians. The person in charge of the Gate operation seemed to be a Jaffa seated in a high chair to one side of the technicians.

Also present and of particular interest to Buffy and Drusilla were a group of eight Jaffa guards. They were stood in a group on guard and each of them held upright a long pole weapon of the type already familiar to Buffy. They seemed to be on standby to deal with any unwelcome arrivals through the Stargate.

"And just what exactly are you two doing?" asked a deep voice from behind them. The two women turned around to find that the voice belonged to a tall solid looking Jaffa in a long red robe. "In fact who exactly are you?"

Drusilla responded quickly before the slayer went into fighting mode and attracted unwelcome attention from all sides. She took half a pace forward towards the Jaffa, looked up into his eyes and put her hand on his cheek. "Look into my eyes," she commanded quietly and the Jaffa quietly complied. "You know us," she added in her most seductive manner whilst putting her other hand on his shoulder.

Her influence on the Jaffa was immediate. "I know you," he repeated.

"You know why we're here," Drusilla continued.

"I know why you're here," the Jaffa repeated.

"You need to help us when we need it," said Drusilla.

"I need to help you when you need it," agreed the Jaffa.

"But for the moment you should leave us alone," said Drusilla.

"But for the moment I should leave you alone," said the Jaffa who then turned and walked away.

Buffy gave Drusilla a curious look. "Well who would have guessed, Obi-Wan Drusilla," said Buffy. "Guess that explains a few of the things you did back in Sunnydale," added Buffy bringing a few bitter memories to mind. She forced her mind back to more immediate concerns. "Now what we need to do is find some way to go through that Stargate, go through to the right place that is."

Buffy was interrupted by a loud speaker announcement from one of the technicians. "Connection established. Incoming wormhole." As the technician said this, the fluid type wave surged out from the Stargate and settled back to a flat, watery curtain in the Gate.

"He's coming!" said Drusilla suddenly, grabbing hold of Buffy's arm. "He's coming!"

A fine time for a relapse back to the old insane Drusilla thought Buffy. "Who's coming?" she hissed at Drusilla.

"Angel!" said Drusilla. "It's Angel, he's coming, he's coming now!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I'm afraid there is no civilian transport north at the moment," said Susa. "With this new offensive by Marduk there are no trains or carriages going that way. North leads straight to the front line."

Susa explained that at the time of the current Goa'uld attack there had been a brief interruption in contact with the Kallistien capital. This had been because of a synchronised attack on the capital which had caused the witches there to be otherwise occupied.

Susa explained that the witches had regular contact with their main HQ in their capital city Demantine way to the north. The contact, in a society without radio, was via the witch covens who would send messages to each other.

"Contact has been restored but travel is disrupted," Susa explained. "Marduk holds the southern part of the northern continent and he's also recently taken over some of the northern coastal areas of the southern continent. He's between us and Demantine. We're in the southern continent so you might have to cross the ocean to find your Mr Giles."

"I could orb us back to our entry portal and we could return to Earth," offered Jenny. "Once there we could ask the witches to open another portal to somewhere else on Kallistien."

"That'll all take time," said Eve. "And we might find ourselves worse off than we are now. We might be farther away from Giles and we might end up in the hands of these Goa'uld if we come out in the wrong place."

"I'm not sure it would work anyway," said Wesley. "I don't know if the Devon Coven could open another portal to somewhere else on Kallistien. Logically if they use the same spell it'll open the same portal. Any experimenting might send us to some other world entirely."

"Well there's no air travel here," said Jenny, "except for the Goa'uld. Teleportation all the way to the capital would take a lot more magic power than I've seen here, even if the witches could spare it. Anyway even if we went straight to Demantine we might find we'd gone too far north. We'll just have to sneak through the Goa'uld area."

"I could take you some of the way," offered Susa. "We still have people active in the Goa'uld occupied area. I'm sure they'll help. Anyway I think you'll have to go into the Goa'uld held area to find your Mr Giles. I'm sure it's the Goa'uld who kidnapped him, not any of our witches."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wesley, Jenny and Eve made their way to the local Kallistien HQ building and into the large room set aside for the use of the local witches' coven. Waiting inside were six witches: five to send the travellers on their way and Susa who would be travelling some of the way with them.

The four travellers took their place in the circle formed by the five witches. The witches now lit the candles surrounding the circle and then sat down cross-legged on the floor. The burning candles soon provided a pungent smell. Clearly these were not regular candles because as the witches began to chant they each became the source of a dense column of smoke.

Soon everybody in the room was breathing in the smoke but it did not cause any coughing. It did however restrict visibility. Soon the smoke had formed into a thick, opaque wall surrounding the circle. Nothing now was visible to the travellers except each other and the smoke walls on all sides of them including above and below.

Gradually the smoke faded away and the travellers found themselves in a different room altogether, one already occupied by two other people, a man and a woman.

"Is that the usual way you teleport?" asked Wesley. "Because I haven't seen it done that way before." That wasn't the way they teleported back in the forest he thought.

"It depends on the distance and the strength of the witch coven," said Susa. "Anyway doing it this way is safer because their witches will find it harder to detect."

"We're in the small village of Hamindale," continued Susa. "It's not far from the north coast." She now introduced the three Earth people to Jacimo and Illis, the people who were waiting for them.

"This is as far as I can go," said Susa. "I've got to wait here until the coven are ready to take me back. Jacimo and Illis will guide you in whatever direction you need to go."

"Still north I'm afraid," replied Jenny. "But you don't need to wait for the coven. I can take you back straight away."

Jenny orbed back to the HQ building with Susa and then returned. In the meantime Wesley and Eve had been talking to Jacimo and Illis.

"The coast is only a couple of miles north of here," Wesley explained to Jenny. "There's a bay there where we can get a boat to cross the ocean to the northern continent."

"A sailboat!" said Eve. "Steam engines haven't yet reached these parts."

"And how long will all this take?" asked Jenny.

Wesley turned to Jacimo. "About fifteen days," said Jacimo, "if you're good sailors."

"If we're good sailors?" asked Eve. "You mean we've got to do the sailing?"

"We can't spare anybody to go with you," said Illis. "There and back will take at least 30 days, more if the winds are bad."

"I've done a little sailing in the Solent," said Wesley remembering a few boyhood trips and imagining himself as the captain of a small sailing ship.

Eve was unimpressed and looked at Jenny who shrugged.

"I've got a better idea," said Eve turning to Illis. "Where's the nearest Goa'uld base?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Expecting some sort of attack by Angel and maybe others, through the Stargate Buffy and Drusilla wandered closer to the Gate. They positioned themselves out of sight behind some parked vehicles. They were still close to the Jaffa who were on guard and the man in charge in his high chair. If an attack did develop they intended being in a position to disrupt any defence.

At first the new arrivals coming through the Stargate looked to be a Jaffa followed by a group of women with another Jaffa at the back. However Buffy quickly began to recognise faces and almost giggled when she realised that Xander was the second 'Jaffa'.

"What's been going on over there!" demanded the Jaffa commander. "Why have you been out of contact? Wait a minute, who are you? You're not..." At that point things began to happen quickly starting with Buffy rushing forward and tipping the commander's chair over and him with it.

Still accelerating and followed closely by Drusilla, Buffy screamed a loud whoop as a distraction and barrelled into the back of the group of Jaffa. She sent two of them flying face down onto the floor at the foot of the ramp leading to the Stargate, losing their staff weapons in the process. The others were sufficiently distracted by the attack that nobody fired before Angel and Kennedy joined Buffy and Drusilla in attacking them.

Both Angel and Drusilla changed to vampire face as they attacked, startling their opponents but neither attempted to use their fangs. They joined the slayers in a fury of kicking and punching, making sure that the Jaffa had no chance to bring their weapons to bear.

Gwen stayed away from the hand to hand fighting and concentrated on sending small electrical bolts into the various technicians and others present, carefully avoiding damaging the equipment. These bolts, together with stun shots by Xander using his Zat gun swiftly disabled all the non-combatants including the fallen commander who was knocked down by a Zat blast from Xander before he could pull out his own gun from his belt.

Willow and Tara took no part in the combat, not even to cast a freeze spell but instead got clear of the Stargate and, hand in hand, stood ready to react to any new threat. At this stage they had decided only to use magic if really needed. Once the fighting was over they would look to disable, but not damage the Stargate.

The Jaffa had no chance. Attacked in front by a slayer and a vampire and in back by another slayer and another vampire they were rapidly dealt with. For a brief moment everything was quiet as Angel gave Buffy a quick hug. Then an alarm began to sound.

"Everybody back through the gate!" ordered Buffy, "before any more Jaffa arrive."

"What about Cordy and Faith?" asked Tara. "We've got to find them."

"They're all right, they're safe," replied Buffy, or they were last I saw them she thought.

"Can't we just leave the building?" asked Angel. "If we move fast, before they can recover? They'll be ready for us if we try to come through the Stargate again later to get Cordy and Faith."

"No need," said Buffy. "There's a better way. Anyway we can't go outside."

"Because the sun's shining out there?" said Xander. I knew it he thought. Angel's going to hold us up.

"Because we're on a space ship," replied Buffy stunning Xander. "And no, we don't have time to find a window and look out," continued Buffy quite correctly reading Xander's mind.

"Everybody back, now!" said Buffy forcefully. But it was too late. The watery curtain on the inside of the Stargate suddenly disappeared. In accordance with the plan, Dawn had now disconnected the Stargate from the other end and would not power it up again until the next day. At that moment a door opened halfway down the long side wall of the hanger area and armed Jaffa began to pour through.


	14. Time and Time Again

**Chapter Fourteen: Time and Time Again**

Piper's idea had been to scry for Replicators once again. "Whatever or whoever is causing that dust cloud we don't want it to be more Replicators," she had pointed out. "If there are no more Replicators we can scry for danger generally and see if it points to the cloud."

But the result of the first scrying spell had confirmed Piper's fears. It had pointed directly at the approaching dust cloud. The advancing cloud must represent the advance of another horde of Replicators. The reason for the presence of the Replicator spaceship might be because this was already a Replicator occupied world.

"That lot must have been further away than that spaceship the first time we checked so our previous spell pointed to the ones in orbit and not the ones already on the planet," commented Prue.

By now, as well as getting closer, the cloud had expanded a lot in width. "There must be an awful lot of those little beasties to kick up a cloud that big," said Phoebe.

SG-12 had acted immediately to the news of more Replicators and went over to the Stargate to prime the explosives they had set. Noticing this, the sisters had gone up to Major Larkham to ask what SG-12 were doing.

"Colonel O'Neill's orders," replied Larkham. "We take no chances. Whatever happens we've got to stop the Replicators taking over the Gate and going through it. We've got to blow it up, completely destroy it."

"So how do we get home?" asked Piper. "And what about Paige and the others?"

"The plan is, we set the explosives so we can go through the Gate and blow it up behind us," replied Larkham. "We'd like you guys to help with that if you can. The others will have to take their chances."

"Take their chances!" exclaimed Piper. "Now just a minute, that's my little sister you're talking about!" Perhaps I should do a little freezing she wondered.

"Don't worry," interjected Doctor Sarfraz. "The SGC has contact with a number of alien races who have interstellar spaceships of their own. I'm sure a rescue trip can be arranged. The SGC knows exactly where this planet is."

"But how long will that take?" asked Phoebe, "with them stuck on a planet of Replicators."

"You don't need to do this," protested Piper. "We can destroy the Replicators. I can destroy the Replicators. I've done it before."

"Can you guarantee, absolutely guarantee to destroy them all?" asked Larkham. "There must be thousands of them coming. It only needs one of them to get through that Gate and it'll create countless copies. It's like a plague."

"Not to mention those walking bombs," put in Lieutenant Davidson. "How will you deal with them?"

"They're right," said Prue. "We can't take any chances. But there are a few things we can do which will give everybody a way home without giving the Replicators a chance to take over the Gate."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The attack on the capital by Marduk's forces had been launched in the expectation that the witches' defences would be disrupted by Lord Shumi's attempted coup. Thanks to Cordelia, Faith and Giles there was no such disruption.

The bombing by the Goa'uld aircraft totally failed to penetrate the magic shield held in place by the witch covens. The only explosions that went off were those set off by various groups of agents in the city working for Shumi.

Marduk landed contingents of Jaffa troops but they soon discovered that many of their weapons were useless within the city. Not only that, but as time went on the witch defence seemed to become stronger than ever. Soon after the landing the Jaffa began to sustain major casualties as their own weapons were exploded by the spells of the witches and Jaffa aircraft were brought down by the explosion of the bombs and ammunition aboard.

The second wave of Jaffa was never committed to the attack after the disaster that befell the first wave. Also conspicuous by their absence were any of the witches that were now working for Marduk. Any plan for using these witches against a weakened defence had presumably also been aborted.

After a hectic few hours Cordelia, Faith and Giles finally found time to sit down in a side room of the Council Hall and talk. Cordelia had spent much of the time working with one of the witch covens to support the defences. Faith had joined the guards from the Council Hall in capturing groups of agents and saboteurs working for Shumi. Giles had remained at the Council Hall and had taken the opportunity to meet some of the Kallistien councillors and find out more about what was happening.

The three Earth exiles began by explaining to each other what had happened to them. Giles agreed with the two women that they should help the Kallistians defeat the Goa'uld and try to find a way to free those Earth witches who had been taken captive as well as find Buffy of course. Unfortunately for the other two Earthmen who had been working for Shumi, Giles's fear that they would be killed had turned out to be correct.

"Remember we have a fine line to tread here," said Giles. "It's not our business to fight wars and kill human beings. That's not what white magic and the slayer gift is for. Kill non human parasites that prey on humans: yes. That's pretty well what we do when we kill demons and vampires. But we have to do it without killing people ourselves."

"That's all very well," said Cordelia. "None of us want to kill anybody but this is a war. If it's them or us I'd like it to be them. Anyway the witches here are doing their best not to kill anybody."

"What about those crashed planes and those dead Jaffa?" asked Giles sounding very sceptical.

"Like I said they're doing their best," said Cordelia. "They don't like using magic to kill any more than we do although it's not always possible to avoid it without being killed yourself. The way they've got it set up the planes that come within the protected area get destroyed by their own bombs if the pilots try to use them and the Jaffa hand weapons explode when the Jaffa try to use them to fire on somebody else. So in a way they're killing themselves."

"With my history I'm the last person to want to kill human beings," said Faith, "but I'm not going to let the Goa'uld win because I'm afraid to get my hands dirty. If they take over here what's to stop them going to Earth next? They know where we are."

"Let's see how things go shall we," replied Giles. "All I'm saying at the moment is to bear this in mind. It might come to a decision one way or another at some time but for the moment do what you've been doing and avoid causing any fatalities yourselves as far as you can. Magical and mystical gifts are not there to be used against other people, especially people who are in many ways victims themselves. I don't need to talk to you two about the dangers of dark magic. We just have to remember that the ends don't justify the means."

At that point the witches Lagathe and Maralli entered the room and joined the three exiles from Earth. "Many thanks for all you've done," said Lagathe. "I dread to think what might have happened if Shumi's plan had succeeded."

"As it is, with all the help you've given plus the help we've been getting from the Tau'ri witches we now have a real chance of beating the Goa'uld," said Maralli.

"The Tau'ri are here?" asked Faith. "Can we see them?"

"I don't see why not," replied Lagathe looking at Maralli who nodded. We've certainly got every reason to trust them now she thought. "They arrived not long ago. I don't see why we can't go and see them now."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Willow realised that the time for holding back had passed. Willow and Tara had carried out a deactivation spell to prevent any surprise visitors arriving through the Stargate but two new groups of Jaffa had nevertheless arrived, one by elevator from within the ship and the other via teleportation rings.

Willow took Tara's hand and together they invoked a wind spell. The blast swept down the hanger area and knocked over all of the Jaffa advancing from that end of the hanger off their feet. They were tumbled over and over until they came up against the launch bay doors at the far end.

Buffy, seeing that the witches had that particular threat well in hand lead a charge towards the Jaffa who were arriving by teleportation rings. Her reaction, and that of Angel, Kennedy and the others following, was sufficiently fast to bring them into close contact and combat before the Jaffa could bring their energy weapons to bear.

Meanwhile Tara orbed Willow and Gwen to the far end of the hanger area where Gwen started to use small blasts of electricity to knock out any of the pile of Jaffa there who showed any sign of recovering and constituting a threat.

The six Jaffa who had arrived by teleportation rings were now engaged in combat with the slayers, the vampires and Xander. They had not anticipated and were not prepared for such a ferocious and immediate attack. All of the attackers had now had experience of fighting Jaffa and knew not to take them lightly so no punches were pulled. However barely had the Jaffa been downed when a fresh group arrived by teleportation ring.

Buffy turned to launch a new attack but suddenly found Willow stood beside her. Willow had been orbed back across the area by Tara and had applied her freeze spell to the new arrivals before they had a chance to deploy. Gwen had remained at the far end to watch the other group of fallen Jaffa. Willow now completed the release of her companions from the freeze spell and put the Jaffa to sleep.

"Space ships, beam up technology, all we need now is for the Klingons to turn up," said Xander. "This is all pretty cool." He looked around him to find amused expressions on the faces of the women around him. "In a very serious way of course," he added with fake seriousness as he tried and failed to wipe the grin from his face.

"Tara and I can make a portal back to Earth if you want to go back there now," said Willow. "But I think we should take advantage of our present position and take over this vessel."

"She's right," said Angel who had come up on Buffy's other side. "A lot of their fighters are out of action now. It might take a while before they get any more. We should strike now."

"That's all very well but can anybody fly this thing?" asked Xander.

"We'll take prisoners," said Willow. "With a little magic they can work for us."

"No," said Buffy. "You've no idea how big this thing is. Think of an aircraft carrier but a lot, lot bigger. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people aboard. There aren't enough of us. Anyway they've got witches of their own on board somewhere. We're badly outgunned. We've got to get out of here."

"We'll start our spell to open the portal," said Tara quickly, relieved that she didn't have to have another discussion with Willow about why she shouldn't use magic to control people.

But by now the people in charge of the vessel had hit upon another idea to get rid of their unwanted visitors. At the far end of the deck the hanger doors began to open to the sound of emergency alarms. In a very short time all of the air would be sucked out and the people with it.

To start with, the fallen and unconscious Jaffa at that end of the area began to be sucked out, thus demonstrating the callousness of those in charge to their own people. Gwen, the only person down that end of the area would have gone with them but Tara orbed over to her and orbed her back to safety, at least temporary safety.

There was now no way that the witches could do their spell to create a portal back to Earth. Willow and Tara now had to exert all their efforts to try to close the doors again.

"Close!" Willow repeatedly commanded but, even with Tara's support she was only partially successful. The force that she was applying was not sufficient to fully close the doors which were still being forced open by the power of the vessel. For now the competing forces remained in balance but there remained a small gap to outer space and all of the air would eventually be sucked out.

The hanger area had now been locked down by those in command in order to seal off that part of the vessel which was becoming airless and to prevent anybody from getting into the rest of the ship. Given time and with slayer and vampire strength they would be able to break their way out and into the rest of the ship but with the air leaking out there was little time.

The only obvious way out was the Stargate, but how to work it? Where to dial? Where to go? With Willow and Tara occupied the Stargate couldn't be released from their spell of deactivation. There was however another alternative.

"Over here!" shouted Drusilla. "We can leave this way."

Drusilla was referring to the teleportation device. She had found and woken the Jaffa whom she had mesmerised a short time before. As she and the others watched he explained how it worked.

"Can we send everybody at once?" asked Xander. "It'll be a bit of a squeeze."

"Hurry!" shouted Tara from behind them. "We're still losing air and we can't hold this much longer."

"Everybody stand on the platform" said Angel. "You all go first and I'll bring Willow and Tara along afterwards. I'll be alright, I don't need air."

Buffy, Xander, Drusilla, Gwen and Kennedy stood on the platform and were sent down to the planet. Angel then turned to Willow and Tara who were still concentrating on trying to stop the door to the outside fully opening up.

By now the atmosphere on the deck was a lot thinner and breathing was a definite problem. A problem that the witches could have dealt with had they not been otherwise occupied in preventing the hanger doors from fully opening. Willow continued to exert her will but she could no longer spare the breath to speak magic commands. The hanger doors were now slowing opening.

Willow and Tara held tightly to each other. Tara, as a Whitelighter could also exist, at least for a short while, with little or no air. As well as holding fast to Willow she now pressed her mouth against Willow's mouth to give her as much of her own air as possible.

Rather than disturb the concentration of the two witches Angel picked them both up and put them down on the teleportation platform. He then set the controls to jump to the same destination as the others. As the three of them waited to be transported nothing happened. The people in charge of the vessel had presumably detected the use of the teleportation device and had cut power to it.

At that moment Willow fainted. She had taken herself to the limit in trying to stop the outside doors being opened. With her collapse the doors shot open and the remaining air, together with everything in the area that was unsecured was pulled in a rush towards the outside doors and outer space.

Tara still held tightly to Willow and Angel held tightly to them both as they were swept along the deck towards the doors and oblivion in outer space. The remaining bodies of Jaffa and technicians, some of them recovering consciousness were swept along with them including the confused Jaffa mesmerised by Drusilla.

Angel frantically searched for something to cling to as they reached the yawning gap into outer space but to no avail. At that moment, Tara orbed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Teal'c finished going through the ration packs. "If we only use the minimum possible each day I think we have enough for twenty days. SG-12 didn't leave their packs or we would have had more. We need to find more food if we are to survive longer than that."

"SG-12 must have gone back to Earth with Paige's sisters," said Sam. "I think enough time has passed so they wouldn't corrupt the timeline. But I can't understand why they didn't leave their packs behind to help us."

"I can't believe my sisters would just leave me behind," said Paige. "Not even a message."

"More Replicators have passed through here," said Teal'c who was now kneeling down carefully examining the ground. "Their tracks are all around this area, and they overlie all the human tracks. They must have passed through after SG-12 left. They may have taken or destroyed any message, or ration packs."

"Or they may not have had time to leave a message," said Daniel.

"Anyway don't worry," said Jack. "We won't be abandoned. We have a few friends with their own spaceships. The SGC know where we are. They'll arrange for us to be picked up."

"And how long will that take?" asked Paige.

"Hard to say," replied Jack. "We don't actually have a cab rank of spaceships on standby but we will be picked up." I hope, Jack added to himself.

"Is there anything, um, magical that you could do?" asked Daniel of Paige.

"Like what?" asked Paige. "I don't know any fly me across the universe spells." But I suppose I might work something out Paige thought, after I've had a rest, maybe some sort of inter-world portal, but would they really leave without me?

"I was wondering if you might..." began Daniel only to stop suddenly because of the new arrivals.

SG-12 and the Halliwell sisters were suddenly back with them, having just appeared from nowhere. After the greetings were over and Paige had been hugged by each of her sisters they explained that they had had to blow up the Stargate because of the approach of a new mass of Replicators. They had not however gone through the Stargate before blowing it up.

"It was the safest option Colonel," explained Major Larkham. "That way we were sure it was destroyed. Especially with the plan the witches put together."

"Once the Stargate was destroyed we travelled forward in time," explained Prue. "And here we are. No Stargate and the Replicators have passed by."

"But now you're stranded with us," said Sam who even as she said it realised that there was a way out that the witches had probably already considered. "Or perhaps not..."

"Exactly," said Phoebe. "We now do a spell to take us back a few days to before any of this happened and before the Stargate was destroyed."

"All this is giving me a headache," said Jack.

"OK," said Daniel, "We go back a few days but we can't then return to Earth because..."

"It would corrupt the timeline," chorused most of those present.

"So we go to Kallistien," said Sam. "We intended to go there all along and we know we won't meet anybody from Earth there, so long as we don't go back far enough to overlap our previous visit. We can find out what the Kallistien witches are all about and return to Earth a few days later when all these time loops have run out."


	15. Getting Organised

**Chapter Fifteen: Getting Organised**

"Stop worrying," said Eve to Wesley. "She's in no danger. I mean what can they do to her? She's a Whitelighter. If anything happens she can just orb back here. Anyway as far as the Goa'uld are concerned she's just another local."

Eve's plan had been simple. Jenny would allow herself to be captured by the Goa'uld. Hopefully she would be taken north to the main Goa'uld base in the northern continent. Once there she would orb back and pick up Wesley and Eve, thus avoiding the need for the delay and risk of sailing north.

"I just don't like waiting here in safety while somebody else takes the risks," said Wesley.

"I thought you were a Watcher," said Eve. "Isn't that what Watchers do, stay back while the slayer takes all the risks?"

"Keep your mouth shut about something you know nothing about," replied Wesley heatedly. "That's not the way a Watcher works with a slayer." He walked away from Eve before he said any more and tried to calm himself down. At least it's not the way things are now he added to himself. I suppose I thought it was true when I first went to Sunnydale though. I really was young and stupid then.

Eve had hit home with her remark, something that came as a surprise to her. She had been getting along with Wesley and this was the first time for a while that her habit of making barbed remarks had hit a sore spot. She decided to keep it in mind for future reference. People generally reveal more when they're angry she thought.

As Eve continued to watch the Goa'uld base from the concealment of the nearby trees, what could only be some sort of transport aircraft took off. According to Jacimo and Illis this contained the latest contingent of locals to be rounded up by the Jaffa. Jenny should be aboard.

The destination was unknown but was assumed to be the northern continent as that was the direction taken by such planes in the past. Contact with people living in the north in the Goa'uld occupied territory had revealed that the people sent north were formed into labour gangs to work on Goa'uld construction projects and newly established intensive farms.

Today however there was a change. For some reason the aircraft, after taking off and heading north began to climb steeply and soon was headed straight up. Now it looked like nothing more than the launch of a space shuttle as it disappeared into the sky far above.

"What does your plan say about that then?" asked Wesley who had returned to watch after his short frustrated walk. "Looks like they may be heading into orbit, or even off to another planet."

"What's the problem?" said Eve. "Jenny's still a Whitelighter and last I heard that's the direction of heaven. She's bound to be at home up there."

"I hope she doesn't go too far to orb back before she realises what's happening," said Wesley.

"I suppose she might have to orb from orbit," said Eve. "Say, it that why they call it orbing, because going upstairs is like being in orbit?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The arrival of the SG teams with the witches was very different to the previous visit to Kallistien. For one thing there was a large armed guard on the Stargate, the commander of which insisted on taking all the SG-1 and SG-12 weapons.

On being told that the Tau'ri had returned and this time had brought their witches with them the commander became much more respectful. He had all the visitors escorted to a local hotel, still under guard however, and explained that somebody would come to see them there.

The hotel was large and bustling with people. Apparently the city was pretty well full because of a session of the High Council. Nevertheless a floor was reserved for visiting dignitaries and rooms, including a central meeting room, were allocated to the Tau'ri party.

Later in the day Councillor Lultesh, an overweight bustling sort or man who had met SG-1 on their last visit, arrived with two witches, Meddine and Okesh. The witches wanted to talk to the sisters alone but Prue refused to agree.

"We're all together," said Prue. "Whatever you want to say to us you can say to them. That's the way we operate."

This was not at all to the liking of the Kallistien witches but they agreed. On the other hand it impressed Councillor Lultesh who was used to the secretive ways of the Kallistien witches and found it a refreshing change.

So it came out that the Kallistians wanted help from the Tau'ri witches in their wars with the Goa'ulds Marduk and Apophis. They explained what had happened and how things stood at the moment.

"Sorry," said Piper. "We don't do wars. People killing each other, not our thing. We only deal with the supernatural and non-human threats like those Replicator thingies."

"Threats to humankind and the like," said Phoebe. "Monsters, goulies and things that go bump in the night."

"The Goa'uld are not actually people," said Daniel who then explained in more detail what he had explained briefly to Paige back on the Replicator spaceship. He explained about the Goa'uld symbiotes and the Jaffa and about the period when the Goa'uld ruled Earth.

"We have been working together for some years to stop the Goa'uld taking over more worlds, including the Earth," said Teal'c. "We should certainly assist the Kallistians in their fight."

"Besides," the witch Meddine had explained, "it's not just us. The Goa'uld are making war on witches on other worlds." She explained about the Goa'uld using magical portals and a Stargate to kidnap other world witches. "They might come to your world someday."

"If they haven't already," added Lultesh.

"Do you know anything about this Goa'uld Marduk, Teal'c?" asked Jack.

"Marduk is one of the Goa'uld who was on Earth many years ago..." said Teal'c.

"Marduk was the name of the chief god of ancient Babylon if I remember correctly," said Daniel.

"These Goa'uld pretended to be gods?" asked Phoebe.

"They actually think they are gods," said Sam. "They expect their followers to think the same. They use high tech tricks to make people believe it and they're utterly ruthless."

"Marduk was the chief rival of Ra and Apophis for many years," continued Teal'c. "In recent years he has avoided conflict with other Goa'uld as much as possible. It was thought that this was because of weakness but it may be he has been biding his time and building up his forces."

"And picking off places like Kallistien where there are no other Goa'uld," suggested Jack. "Or at least not until Apophis turned up. Why does that guy keep turning up everywhere we go? I thought the universe was meant to be pretty big?"

At that moment there was a loud explosion. The explosion seemed to have come from several blocks away. Everybody rushed over to the window to see what was happening. Everybody but the SG Military personnel who all dropped to the floor.

"Get away from the windows people!" ordered Jack in a loud voice. "And get down! Standing by a glass window when there are bombs going off is the worse thing you can do."

As the others moved away from the windows a second explosion went off, coming it seemed from about the same location.

"It's the Council Building," said Okesh. "The Goa'uld are attacking the High Council Building."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack walked into the meeting room of the hotel to find it empty apart from Daniel who was sat at a table upon which were piled a large number of books. Daniel looked up from his reading.

"Everything OK?" he asked.

"Yup," replied Jack. "SG-12 are now back on Earth."

Following the attack on the city Jack had decided to send SG-12 back to Earth to report to General Hammond about the Replicators and the situation on Kallistien, in particular the war between the Kallistians and the Goa'uld. The time loop had now run out. Jack had assured the Kallistians that the Tau'ri would do all they could to assist in defeating the Goa'uld.

Jack had sent a request for weapons and a few combat troops but these would never be sufficient to make much difference in a world wide war, especially as the enemy had space and teleportation technology. Jack's main plan was to improve the Kallistien technology. As a first step he had also asked for communication equipment, in particular as many radio sets and operators as possible in order to improve Kallistien communications since radio was barely known to them. Then there were the witches.

At the time of the attack on the High Council Hall the Kallistien witches had rushed off and taken the witch sisters with them, insisting that they needed their immediate help. The sisters had gone on the understanding that they would only be involved in protecting people and saving lives. Jack had been fobbed off by the Kallistien witches with the promise that the Kallistien military would soon be sending some representatives to speak with him so he and the other non-witches agreed to stay in the hotel.

Communication with the sisters since that time had been via Paige who had orbed back and forth a few times. That was how Jack had learned that the sisters had been taken to the main witch defence HQ and had helped in the defence of the city by boosting the magical shields used by the local witches.

On her last visit Paige had explained that the sisters believed that the Goa'uld had been kidnapping witches from Earth and bringing them to Kallistien. They seemed to have some way of controlling them and making them work for them. What they wanted was for a letter to be delivered from Piper to her husband Leo.

"Leo can contact other witches, real witches, and help you do something about it," Paige had explained. "Piper's letter explains all about it."

Jack had sent an explanation, together with Piper's letter, onto General Hammond as part of the report he sent with SG-12. In the meantime he was still waiting to meet the Kallistien military. He urgently needed to talk to them about how the Tau'ri assistance could best be used to help in the war.

"These people have got a war going on," said Jack who was by now becoming frustrated by the waiting. "They're threatened with destruction and here we are waiting, waiting and doing nothing. You'd think they'd at least find the time for an urgent talk with their allies."

"They don't think of us as the real allies," said Daniel. "Their culture has been dominated by witches for centuries. As far as most of them are concerned it's our witches who are the real allies. Everything else is window dressing, or at least that's the way they think."

"Even after they've been attacked by Goa'uld weaponry?" asked Jack. "You'd think they'd have a bit of respect for technology by now."

"So what are you studying?" asked Jack picking up one of the books from the pile on the table and flipping through it.

"Kallistien history," replied Daniel. "I was trying to find out something about how the Kallistians got rid of the Goa'uld the last time. So far I've found nothing except the witches are given the credit for it."

At that moment Sam entered the room. "We've got visitors," she said.

"At last," said Jack.

"It's not the military people we've been waiting for," said Sam. "It's some more witches. They're on their way up."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The teleportation rings had deposited Buffy and the others in an outdoor location but thankfully the sun had already set so there was no immediate risk of Drusilla going up in flames. They were in a short alleyway at the back of a row of identical wooden huts. It all looked something like a military base, possibly a Goa'uld base but all was quiet in a middle of the night sort of way.

Because they expected Angel, Willow and Tara to join them pretty well immediately the group moved away from the arrival area to wait in the shadows of a nearby building.

"I'll scout around," said Drusilla. "See what I can find out." With that she melted silently into the darkness as only an experienced vampire could do.

"You don't think she's feeding do you?" asked Kennedy who never felt comfortable around the souled vampires. All her instincts told her to dust them. Why Buffy and Faith didn't seem to feel the same way she never understood. "I'll keep an eye on her," she continued.

"No," said Buffy grabbing Kennedy's arm before she too could disappear into the darkness. "We mustn't get scattered all over the place. Anyway we need to compare notes."

As the group continued to wait for the others Buffy quietly explained what had happened to her, Faith and Cordelia. Xander explained what had happened back on Earth. Buffy then went on to explain what Drusilla had told her about the Charmed sisters and the SGC.

By now it was clear that something had gone wrong back on the space vessel. Time continued to pass and Angel, Willow and Tara still failed to appear. Surely they weren't still fighting to keep the air from rushing out of the hanger deck area?

"We've got to go back," insisted Xander.

"How?" asked Gwen. "There's no machinery at this end." Gwen opened her hands wide to illustrate what everybody could see. It was pretty dark in the alleyway but everybody could see sufficiently well to realise that there was no transportation equipment, well no equipment of any sort, in the area.

"Well there must be one on this base somewhere," said Xander. "Let's search for it."

"And do what?" asked Kennedy. "If we go right back where we came from what are we meant to breathe?"

By now Xander was becoming frustrated. Before a full blown argument could break out Buffy stepped up to him. "I'm sure they're all right," she said. "You don't think Tara would let anything happen to Willow do you? I expect there's something wrong with the transport device. They'll be alright." I hope, she added silently to herself.

Buffy now turned back to the others but before she could say anything else some lights came on, on the other side of the base and they heard shouting followed by the sound of gunfire. Something had disturbed the sleep of the occupants of the base.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Jack, Sam and Daniel awaited the arrival of their visitors they heard noises coming from the corridor outside the room, including shouts and a number of heavy thuds. They all left the room to find out what was going on.

The visitors had indeed arrived. They consisted of Councillor Lultesh and three women, presumably the witches. Also present and for the moment pinned immobile to the wall was Teal'c. The odd thing was that although Teal'c was being held against the wall by one of the young women there did not seem to be any sort of magic involved. Teal'c was being held by a straight arm against his windpipe.

Obviously there had been some sort of misunderstanding. Teal'c was quite obviously a Jaffa and the new arrivals has therefore reacted to him as if he were an enemy because the only Jaffa they had so far met had been hostile and working for the Goa'uld. Councillor Lultesh was attempting to explain things.

"No, no, no," said the Councillor. "Teal'c is a friend. He's one of the Tau'ri."

"The Tau'ri are Jaffa?" asked Faith sceptically, making no move to release her hold. Teal'c had not so far offered any resistance but he was surprised by the strength of the arm holding him up against the wall. His feet were barely on the ground. The young woman was taking most of his weight without effort. He presumed that magic was in some way involved.

"No," interrupted Jack, causing the visitors to turn around. "We're the Tau'ri. Teal'c is now one of us. He doesn't work for the Goa'uld any more."

"And you trust him Mister...?" asked Cordelia having a good look at the rest of SG-1.

"Colonel," said Jack. "Colonel Jack O'Neill and yes, I trust him. Teal'c has saved our lives on any number of occasions."

"O'Neill? The Tau'ri are Irish?" said Cordelia astonished. "Are you serious?"

"Irish-American," said Jack. "US Air Force."

"Could you erm, release Teal'c," asked Daniel. "Before he turns blue."

Faith looked at Cordelia who shrugged. Faith decided she could always take up where she left off if necessary so she released Teal'c who at once began massaging his neck.

"Perhaps we could go inside and get on with the introductions," said Sam leading the way into the meeting room.

Councillor Lultesh carried out the introductions so that at least everybody knew who, if not exactly what everybody was. He introduced his companions as the witches Maralli and Cordelia as well as Cordelia's companion Faith. He introduced the members of SG-1. Councillor Lultesh also proudly announced that he had been appointed as Ambassador to the Tau'ri. This caused Jack to groan inwardly.

Jack had been dealing with various human societies for quite a while now and had some idea of the way these things worked. What usually happened was that some local politician or busybody set him or herself up or had himself appointed, as the contact person to deal with the Tau'ri. From then on that person became very jealous of his position and tried to make sure that all contact with the Tau'ri went through him.

It they were lucky the person so appointed was an influential, easy going person who facilitated contact and made things run smoothly. More often however the person involved proved to be an enormous road block to getting anything done as it was often somebody whose idea of their own importance was greatly exaggerated and there were interminable delays as they referred back and forth to those with the real power.

"Daniel Jackson, Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter," said Cordelia. "So three of you are Americans with one Jaffa."

"So why are you calling yourselves Tau'ri?" asked Faith.

"They are not Tau'ri?" asked Lultesh who suddenly had the horrible vision of his new and important post disappearing, or becoming much less important.

"We are Tau'ri, but we're Americans as well," said Sam quickly. "Earth is called Tau'ri out here. Are you Americans as well? Were you amongst these kidnapped witches we've heard about?"

"That's right," said Cordelia. "The Goa'uld have been snatching people through their magic portals and their Stargate on Earth."

"They're operating a Stargate on Earth?" asked Jack. He turned to Sam. "How is that possible without us knowing? Wouldn't it interfere with our Gate?"

"Not necessarily," said Sam. "Not if it was originally brought in by Goa'uld spaceship sometime from somewhere else," suggested Sam. "That way it might have a different dial up address and not interfere with our own Gate, like those Gates the Goa'uld have on their big ships."

"So what Piper said in her message is right," said Daniel. "The Goa'uld have been snatching witches from Earth."

"Piper?" said Faith. "Do you mean Piper Halliwell? What's she got to do with this?"

SG-1 explained about how they had come to work with the Halliwells and what they were doing on Kallistien. Cordelia and Faith explained about how they had come to Kallistien.

"So you're a Tau'ri witch," said Maralli to Cordelia, evidently delighted. "That explains why you're so strong."

"You have to get used to that around here," said Faith. "Witches everything, everybody else nothing, or that's what is seems if you hear the local witches speak."

"So if you're not a witch why did they snatch you?" asked Daniel.

"And what exactly are you?" asked Teal'c who was once more massaging his neck.

"I'm the one who beats up on the Jaffa," said Faith grinning. "If I think they deserve it."

"But don't worry," said Cordelia to Teal'c. "Since you're not a demon or vampire you're pretty safe, Faith won't slay you."

"Slay?" queried Daniel remembering a certain book that he had been reading not so long ago.

"Don't ask," said Jack quickly to Daniel. "Just... don't... ask."


	16. Dissention

**Chapter Sixteen: Dissention**

Angel stood up and looked around. He, Willow and Tara were in a corridor. There were doors on either side and some sort of emergency alarm was sounding. Willow remained lying on the floor with Tara knelt next to her. Tara was concentrating on using her healing power on Willow.

Angel's vampire hearing told him that there were people coming closer. He tried the nearest door, which wasn't locked and opened into a darkened room.

"Quick, in here!" he whispered to Tara, at the same time bending down and picking up Willow. Tara had completed her healing and Willow had just woken up. Angel took her into the room and Tara followed, closing the door behind her.

The room was unoccupied and in darkness but nobody made a move to find a light switch. Angel put Willow down on a table in the middle of the room and went back to the door. He heard the rush of people passing down the corridor and then silence.

After a while Angel found a light switch and turned it on. He then turned around to see Willow carefully getting to her feet. Tara had her arm around her helping her.

"Are you alright?" asked Angel quietly.

"Thanks to Tara," replied Willow smiling at her partner. At the same time she took Tara's hand and gave it a little squeeze.

Tara leant forward and gave Willow a quick kiss. "But you'd better not do any magic for a few hours, unless you really have to."

"Where are we?" asked Willow looking around.

"We're still on the spaceship, the Goa'uld spaceship. The background noise of the engines or whatever is exactly the same," explained Angel. "Tara orbed us away from that deck where the air was being sucked out."

"But I thought you couldn't orb this side of the Stargate," Willow asked in a question to Tara.

"I can orb," explained Tara. "But only to places I've already seen. That corridor is what we saw through the portal we made before we came here. Guess it was quite close to the Stargate."

"Probably because we used the Stargate address in the spell," said Willow.

"So you can't orb anywhere else except back to where the Stargate is?" asked Angel. Tara nodded.

"And that is airless, or crawling with the bad guys at the moment," said Willow.

"I need to get out of this room and explore," said Tara. "The more places I go to the more options I'll have when it comes to orbing."

"And we might be able to find another one of those teleportation control points and join up with Buffy," said Willow. "First we find Buffy, then we lose her again, only this time we've lost Xander and the others as well."

"They'll be fine," said Tara tightening her hold around Willow's shoulders. "Buffy won't let anything happen to Xander and the others and at least we know they're together."

Angel had been thinking. "Seems to me these Jaffa might not know anything about vampires," he said. "How about we give them a few nightmares before we leave?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After Cordelia and Faith had gone off to meet the Tau'ri Giles had managed to get an invite to visit the Central Coven, the main HQ of all the Kallistien witches and the nearest thing the Kallistians had to a general HQ for fighting the war. It was on his way to the Coven with the witch Lagathe that he discovered that Cordelia and Faith had been taken to see the original Tau'ri visitors and not the Tau'ri witches. The Tau'ri witches were in fact at the Central Coven working with the Kallistien witches.

The Charmed sisters had now spent some time with the Kallistien witches and they did not see eye to eye. The Kallistians had big plans about what they wanted to do to deal with the Goa'uld and what they wanted the Tau'ri witches to do to help them but this was not at all to the liking of the sisters.

It was while Prue was having her third argument with the Kallistians in the past three hours that she spotted Rupert Giles. She broke off what she was saying and insisted on a timeout in order to get up to date with Giles. Thus it was that a short time later the four sisters sat down to lunch with Giles to find out what had happened to him and to explain how they came to be on Kallistien. They then moved on to discuss the problems they were having with the Kallistians.

"They want us to do all sorts of spells to blow things up and kill people," said Prue, "and you know we can't to that."

"We went as far as we could in helping with the defences that destroyed the attackers with their own weapons when they tried to kill others," said Phoebe. "But we can't act in an offensive way to kill people, even if they are working for the Goa'uld."

"Yes, I totally agree," said Giles. "That's a line we must not cross. This is not like fighting hell monsters and demons."

"The trouble is we can't simply go home and leave them to it," said Piper. "We can't afford to let either of the Goa'uld beat the Kallistians because then they'll be in an even stronger position to attack the Earth."

"And we need to rescue all the people who have been kidnapped," said Paige.

"For the moment we're just offering our help in a defensive capacity," said Prue. "Do you have any ideas about how we can resolve this, about how the Kallistians can win their war without using magic to kill?

"I understand that the witches defeated the Goa'uld once before, a long time ago," said Giles. "Do you know how they did it?"

"No idea," said Phoebe and her sisters also shook their heads.

"They don't know either," said Paige, "because I heard them talking about it."

"I've been doing some reading of Kallistien books," said Giles. "I've picked up what I think are a few clues about what went on but I need to do more research."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the camp came to life Buffy considered looking for an unoccupied hut and remaining hidden until the hubbub had died down. She quickly rejected this option. The camp would probably stay roused until dawn and then through the day following. A hiding place might not remain hidden for long. Before Buffy made a decision, or had any suggestions from the others the group were rejoined by Drusilla.

"What's going on?" asked Buffy. "Is it some sort of attack?"

"Oh yes," replied Drusilla. "Somebody's using guns and shooting fire arrows into the other side of the camp."

As she said this there were signs of fire breaking out on the roofs of the wooden huts on the other side of the camp. This definitely ruled out any idea of hiding in one of the huts.

At that moment a loud siren like noise broke out, obviously raising the alarm and rousing anybody who had so far remained asleep. Two figures dashed past the alleyway on their way to the other side of the camp soon followed by others.

"OK," said Buffy. "We're getting out of here now. Follow me and stay alert." With that Buffy set off in the opposite direction to where the fires were breaking out and where the sirens were sounding. The others followed closely behind.

Going in the opposite direction brought the group to the edge of what looked to be a landing field. "Anybody know how to fly a plane?" asked Buffy. Everybody shook their heads.

At the moment there was no activity on the landing field except for lights at the top of what might be a control tower about one hundred yards to the left. The landing field was as at the edge of the camp and there were trees on the other side. Buffy made to dash across the field when Xander grabbed her arm.

"We're better off going around the perimeter," he said. "Look!" he added pointing to a nearby floodlight tower. "They might turn those lights on at any moment."

Buffy nodded, turned right and raced away, skirting the edge of the field. She knew that Kennedy and maybe Drusilla could keep up but she kept to a steady pace so as not to lose Xander and Gwen.

"Why no sentries?" asked Kennedy who came up beside her. "What sort of a military base is this?"

Buffy stopped dead as she was struck with a sudden foreboding. "Down!" she hissed pulling Kennedy down with her. Drusilla, Xander and Gwen who were now a little strung out behind followed suit. "Everybody stay down and don't move!" ordered Buffy quietly. "No sound!" she added.

Buffy lay motionless but tensed and ready to move at an instant's notice. As she did so she saw a group of black-clad figures scurrying across the landing field. As she looked she saw a second group beyond them and then another. Looking back she saw other groups of people crossing the darkened landing field.

"What's up?" whispered Xander as he reached her side by crawling the last few yards on hands and knees.

Buffy realised that Xander, Gwen also probably, didn't have the night vision of a slayer or a vampire so she quickly and quietly explained what she could see.

"Looks like the fire arrows were a diversion," whispered Xander. "This seems to be the real attack."

"They probably sent scouts ahead to take out the sentries," whispered Kennedy. "That's why we haven't seen any."

As Buffy watched, other groups came into sight until the landing field appeared alive with moving figures.

"Turn around," hissed Buffy. "We'll go in the same direction as this lot for the moment. If we go the other way we'll stand out."

A couple of minutes later the group found themselves back amongst the wooden huts remaining concealed in the shadows as far as possible. Now they could hear fighting coming from the other side of the camp. Jaffa energy weapons combined with Kallistien gunfire.

"OK," said Gwen, "What now?"

"We could wait for these people to pass by," said Kennedy. "They haven't bothered us yet."

"Or we could join in and help them," said Drusilla. "If these people are fighting the Jaffa, we're on the same side."

"Or we could just ask Wesley what's going on," said Xander looking over Buffy's shoulder. Buffy turned around immediately.

To the surprise of everybody Wesley, with one of the groups of Kallistien fighters, had just come round the corner and now stood looking at them, just as astonished as they were.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For Antac, the Jaffa commander of Marduk's flagship 'Kish' things were getting serious. It had all begun when contact had been lost with Marduk's Stargate on Earth. When he had received a brief report that contact had been re-established he had assumed that it had been a short lived technical glitch. It soon became clear that the problem was something else entirely.

Dealing with the attackers who came through the Stargate had been successfully carried out, albeit with a great many casualties and loss of equipment and interceptor planes. After resisting the attacks of the Jaffa the invaders had successfully been swept out into space. Once again Antac had assumed that all would now return to normal. He had made the mistake of reporting this to Marduk himself. It soon became clear that things weren't back to normal.

The Stargate itself was too well secured to be swept into space but the problem was it no longer worked. All the technicians said that they could find nothing wrong with it but nevertheless it simply didn't work. All efforts to power it up were unsuccessful and it remained inert and useless.

All contact with Earth had now been lost since the problem with the Stargate had coincided with the death of Lord Shumi who was the only person working for Marduk who had the knowledge and the power to create magic portals. Marduk was not pleased and Antac had got the message that if he did not improve matters pretty quickly there would soon be a new commander of the flagship.

Currently Antac had the witch coven that was under his command on the 'Kish' busy working on the Stargate. They had pronounced that the Stargate had been blocked by a magic spell, a particularly powerful magic spell. By working together they should eventually be able to clear the spell and return the Gate to use but that was several hours away.

Antac had carefully explained to the witches that their future was closely linked to his. If they did not break the spell, and soon, then they, like him, wouldn't need to worry about any further problems.

For the moment however new problems were coming thick and fast. Reports had come in over the past few hours about the ship being infested with ghosts and monsters. Whilst sceptical about the reports, Antac couldn't deny that something was going on because several crew members and a number of Jaffa seemed to have simply disappeared. An extensive search had found three of the missing men in a storage vault but they seemed to be in a coma. A coma which no drugs or other methods had yet succeeded in breaking. Once again a magic spell was suspected.

Antac was no fool. He didn't get to be the commander of the flagship without being able to think. He realised that at least one of the enemy witches had survived the fight and was now on board and causing trouble. He had therefore formulated a plan to deal with the witch. As soon as the shuttle pod landed on the 'Kish' he would put it into effect.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It'll be nice to see Fred again thought Dawn as she walked home from school. Following the departure of Willow, Angel and the others Dawn had telephoned Fred to let her know everything that had happened. Fred had decided to come to Sunnydale to look at the Stargate. Connor would be coming with her.

"Excuse me, I believe you're Dawn Summers," said a woman who had walked up to Dawn from the other direction.

"Who are you?" asked Dawn on alert for further trouble. As she spoke she looked around and found that two men were crossing the street and coming up behind her. Since it was still daylight she knew they were not vampires but that still left the possibility of more Jaffa or bogus agents.

"I'm Major Grant," said the woman holding out her ID. "I work for the NID, which I think you know is a government security agency. We need to talk to you."

The ID looked to be similar to the ones that Willow thought to be genuine so Dawn decided not to resist or try to run away.

"I'm nearly home," she replied. "Would you like to come in and have a coffee?" Once inside Slayer HQ Dawn knew that there were things she might be able to do to these NID people if necessary. Anyway Anya or Amy might be there, unless they were both at the shop. Gunn would certainly be there keeping an eye on things.

"My boss is in that car," said Major Grant indicating a large car parked over the road. "This won't take long," she added taking Dawn's arm and walking her across the road.

As they reached the car the man in the front got out and opened the back door. Major Grant gently pushed Dawn inside where she found herself sat next to a man in uniform, a military officer's uniform. Major Grant got into the front of the car and the other man walked away presumably to join his colleagues keeping watch.

"I'm Colonel Maybourne," said the uniformed officer holding out his hand. Dawn ignored the hand and the man put it down again.

"I have reason to believe that you and your friends have some top secret equipment in your home," said Maybourne. "Equipment that should be in our custody as a matter of national security."

After the departure of Angel, Willow and the others with the Stargate Maybourne had decided to try to trace them with a view to getting possession of it. Lilah Morgan knew all about Angel, Willow and their friends but had refused to co-operate.

"You really don't want to mess with Willow," she had said. "I don't." With that she had left.

Lilah Morgan wasn't the only source of information available to the NID however. A Willow Rosenberg was already on the list of possible witches to recruit so Maybourne was quickly able to find her address in Sunnydale. After that a few further enquiries gave details of the other residents at the same address.

Dawn recognised the name Maybourne from what she had been told of the events in Seattle. She decided to say nothing in reply to Maybourne's remarks.

"You do realise you could be in serious trouble?" said Maybourne. "We just want the equipment, then you'll be free to go. I should like you to talk to your friends Willow and Angel and anybody else involved. We don't want any trouble but we are prepared for it."

"I've already invited Major Grant in for coffee," said Dawn. "You're welcome to come too. If you've got the right legal documents you can search the place, top to bottom. But you won't find any equipment. I can guarantee that."

Dawn's response was a combination of bluff and confidence in magic. If Amy was about she would make sure that nothing could be found by any searchers even if it was right in front of them.

"Let me put this another way," said Maybourne. "We require you and your friends to tell us where the equipment is and to surrender it to us. No messing about. Otherwise you'll come with us and talk to some people you'd really rather not talk to."

Maybourne always used vague menaces whenever possible. It was so much more effective to allow the person being interrogated to fill in the rest from their own imagination. But Dawn wasn't a random school teenager as he now found out because she actually laughed in response.

"If you'd seen what I've seen in the last few years you'd understand why I'm laughing," Dawn replied. "I've faced demons, monsters, vampires and worse. I've seen things that would have you crying for your mommy. Don't bother with threats. With me they don't work."

"We're not talking about the movies young lady," interjected Major Grant. "You're in serious trouble and it's about time you realised it."

"You do realise you're being watched don't you?" said Dawn.

This created the sort of reaction Dawn was looking for as both officers looked around. Maybourne inclined his head indicating that Grant should get out of the car and check.

"There's no point in checking," said Dawn. "Not unless you've suddenly developed magic powers. I'm being watched by two very powerful witches and if you do anything to threaten me...Well lets just say it wouldn't be a good idea. I'm sure Lilah Morgan could tell you why."

Yes thought Dawn, vague threats are always best. She could see that she had hit home. Both the officers had now seen a little magic. They were in the awkward position of knowing it worked but not knowing what, if any limitations there were on it. In other words they were perfect for the sort of bluff that Dawn was attempting.

"You'd better get home," said Maybourne suddenly. "And tell your friends what we said."

"I will," said Dawn. "Look, I know you're the good guys, only doing what you think best. But we're good guys too. We know what we're doing. You're way out of your depth here."

As Dawn walked away Maybourne began to wonder if she was right.


	17. Reentry

**Chapter Seventeen: Re-entry**

Finally SG-1 received an invite to the main Kallistien HQ to meet with the senior witches and the Kallistien Military. Although they were not told this, the reason for the invitation was because of the insistence of Prue Halliwell and her sisters. Paige had made the others aware of the frustration being felt by Jack and the rest of SG-1 at being side-lined. As Prue explained to the Kallistians:

"You want the help of the Tau'ri, well it's all or nothing. You don't get us without getting them. These guys know all about war and they know all about the Goa'uld. If you people are serious about defeating the Goa'uld you'll listen to them."

On finally reaching agreement following a threat to return home themselves, together with Cordelia, Faith and Giles, Prue asked Paige to bring SG-1 to the HQ as quickly as possible by orb.

SG-1 received a briefing from the Kallistians about the current position of the war and in particular the dilemma that they had of needing to defeat Marduk quickly in order to prepare for the return of Apophis.

"Go for the head," was Jack's solution. "We've fought these Goa'uld before and the only way to get quick results is to take out the head honcho himself. Once you do that all the little Goa'uld underlings start to look out for themselves. They will most likely withdraw from your world to secure control of Marduk's other worlds before they get gobbled up by other Goa'uld. You might even get extra time before Apophis returns because he'll want his slice of Marduk's cake."

"More like the whole cake," said Sam.

"We would like nothing better than to deal with Marduk himself," said Lagathe. "But we cannot find him, even with magic. We think he is using some of his kidnapped witches to shield himself from our scrying."

"You do not need magic to find Marduk," said Teal'c. "He will be on his flagship at the center of things. A Goa'uld engaged in a campaign like this would be nowhere else."

As the discussion continued Daniel felt a tap on his shoulder from behind. He turned to find a man stood behind him. An Earthman judging by the way he was dressed.

"Doctor Jackson?" said Giles taking Daniel aside. "Doctor Daniel Jackson?" Daniel nodded.

"Giles," said Giles shaking Daniel's hand. "Rupert Giles. Faith and Cordelia may have mentioned me."

"Oh yes," said Daniel having a good look at Giles. "But from their description I expected an elderly gentleman with a long white beard and the wisdom of the ages, rather like Merlin the Magician."

"Yes," said Giles. "I've known them both since they were of High School age so they've always seen me as rather, um elderly. Anyway enough about me. I understand you have a background in ancient languages and know a lot about the Goa'uld?"

"Yes I suppose so," said Daniel. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"If you can spare the time," said Giles. "I've been doing some research in the witches' main library downstairs about what exactly happened when the Goa'uld were overthrown last time. I think it's something that could be useful again. I have one or two ideas. With your knowledge and experience I think we might be able to work out the details from the ancient writings that have survived."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The result of contacting Leo Wyatt with his wife's letter proved to be both rapid and spectacular. One moment General Hammond was conducting a tactical meeting with SG-12, the next they were joined by Leo orbing into the room. But Leo was not alone.

Leo held an unconscious man in his arms and he now let the man down to lie on the floor. The man was obviously a Jaffa, even though he was dressed in Earth clothing.

The General set the members of SG-12 at ease by introducing Leo and then added to Sergeant Rees: "Get a couple of armed security men in here."

"Don't worry," said Leo as Rees left the room. "He won't wake up for a few hours yet. I've got others where that one came from plus some other people who seem to be locals who've been working with them. I expect you'll want to talk to them all. I'll be back in a minute."

Over the next few minutes Leo delivered the other Jaffa and the others who had been captured in Sunnydale. He also delivered those who had been captured in Seattle, those who had not been left behind with Colonel Maybourne. These were the people who had been persuaded to show Willow and the others exactly how the Stargate worked.

Leo explained that on receipt of Piper's letter he had made some enquires and had found that the Goa'uld or rather Jaffa acting on their behalf had been active on Earth where they had been working with some locally recruited people.

"These Goa'uld have been kidnapping witches and other magic users using magic portals and another Stargate," said Leo.

"The good news is, some friends of mine have already shut down the Goa'uld Stargate," Leo continued. "We don't think the Goa'uld have used the magic portals recently but I've got a lot of eyes and ears alerted ready to raise the alarm if they see or hear about it happening again or if there are any more unexplained disappearances."

"So where is that Stargate now?" asked General Hammond. "We'd better take custody of it. I'll get a team moving right away."

"Sorry," said Leo. "I can't help you there. I was only told about it in strictest confidence. Some witches have already gone though the Gate to get some of our friends back, so the Gate has to stay where it is until they return."

General Hammond was not at all happy with that. He pointed out to Leo that a Stargate, an active Stargate, could be used as an entry point for both Goa'uld and other hostile forces. The only way to deal with that was for this other Stargate to be under the control of the SGC who had the resources and the experience to deal with it.

Leo refused to be budged. He did not admit that he even knew where the Stargate was but he did insist that the dangers were fully realised by the people involved who were quite able to deal with any unwelcome visitors.

"In fact they have some resources, magical resources, that you don't have," he explained. "But I do know they don't want to babysit this Gate forever. When all their people get back I'll try to persuade them to let you have the Gate."

"I'll give you fair warning," said General Hammond. "We will find that Gate. You'd better warn your friends to be ready to give it up when we do. This is a matter of National Security and I can't compromise that in any circumstances."

"You seem to be assuming this Gate is in the States," said Leo. "I deal with people all over the world. Anyway I understand your Colonel Maybourne already knows about this other Gate. When my friends took it over they left him with the Jaffa and some of the people who were running it. I think he was disappointed he didn't get the Gate as well."

Leo could see from the General's face that this news about Colonel Maybourne was new to him. "I can see the Colonel didn't tell you anything about all this," said Leo. "Perhaps you'd better have a word with him."

"Yes, perhaps I should," agreed the General. The General knew very well why he had not heard from Colonel Maybourne. Obviously the NID wanted to get their hands on the other Gate and use it themselves. Leo orbed away and the security guards removed the unconscious prisoners to the detention cells.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Willow, Tara and Angel watched as the inbound shuttle craft came aboard the hanger deck of the Goa'uld spaceship. They watched as it landed and waited while the shuttle was emptied of occupants. They were watching via a monitor from their HQ within the ship.

Their HQ was a room that no longer existed, as least as far as the crew and computers of the Goa'uld ship were concerned. None of the crew could see the door to the room which had been concealed by magic to give the appearance of just another part of an ordinary corridor. Willow had arranged for the ship's computers to forget about the room.

"OK," said Tara. The others nodded and she orbed them to a pre-selected corner of the hanger deck where they were hidden from immediate observation by the crew. They watched as the prisoners were gathered under guard of a group of armed Jaffa.

Jenny Calendar had walked off the Goa'uld shuttle as part of a line of Kallistien captives and like them found herself standing in the large space of a hanger deck on an orbiting spaceship. Dressed like a Kallistian she did not stand out from the other captives and was not recognised by the three hidden watchers who watched the Jaffa rather than looking closely at the captives.

Jenny had known soon after takeoff that the shuttle was not heading north but was instead going straight up but she had decided not to orb back to join Wesley and Eve. For one thing any orbing would have been obvious to everybody on the shuttle, including the Jaffa guards. For another Jenny did not want to waste any more time. Quite apart from wanting to find Giles as soon as possible Jenny had her Whitelighter duties and could not stay away from them for too long even though she had arranged for colleagues to cover for her in her absence.

Wherever the shuttle was headed it was clearly going somewhere important and that should give her the opportunity to find out a few things, give her a chance to actually get somewhere at last. Jenny was confident of being able to orb back to the planet's surface from a spaceship. If the ship left orbit for another planet she had decided to orb away at once.

As Jenny followed the person ahead of her in the line she found herself as part of a group standing gathered together under the eyes and weapons of a group of Jaffa. As the last of the captives joined the group a loud speaker announcement began. It was heard all over the ship:

"We know you're hiding on the ship and we know what you've been doing. Either you give yourself up right now or we start executing our prisoners. You can see them on any one of the video screens about the ship. You have thirty minutes before the first person dies. Executions will be one every minute after that. And there are plenty more where they came from."

No sooner had the announcement been completed than all the lights went out. This had already been a part of Willow and Tara's plan if necessary. They decided to implement the blackout immediately in order to rescue the captives. They had known nothing about the captives. There were on the hanger deck in order to take control of a shuttle craft and fly it down to the planet.

Tara and Angel weren't sure of the wisdom of trying to fly a spaceship, even a small one. Willow was excited by the prospect. "It's the last thing they'll expect," she had argued. "I'm sure they've staked out the teleport controls somehow. Don't forget what Buffy said. There are witches on this ship working for the Goa'uld. Anyway they could rig those teleport controls to deliver us to a cell somewhere and not to where we want to go."

The hanger deck was now the blackest black with no source of illumination at all. It wasn't a question of eyes becoming accustomed to a very low level of light, there was no light at all to become accustomed to. Although everybody strained to see something, anything at all, there was simply no light to see by.

Before the lights went out Tara had taken a good look into the cabin of the shuttle. Now under cover of darkness she orbed Willow aboard the shuttle, making sure not to make any light while doing so. Meanwhile Angel moved towards the captives. Like everybody else he could see nothing but his other vampire senses were quite sufficient to enable him to move about easily. His task therefore was to get the captives back aboard the shuttle and away from the Goa'uld, disabling any Jaffa who got in the way.

Jenny had realised that all of the prisoners were in danger, imminent danger of being killed. The darkness was almost certainly not part of the Goa'uld plan but was either an unintended malfunction or the result of an action by somebody working against the Goa'uld, probably the person to whom the announcement had been addressed.

Jenny didn't wait for the lights to come back on. She immediately took hold of the two people next to her and, without revealing any orbing light, orbed back to the planet, to the local Kallistien HQ from where she, Wesley and Eve had been transported north into Goa'uld occupied territory.

After very quickly explaining matters to the rescued people and the local Kallistians Jenny orbed back to the ship, intending to repeat her action and rescue the remaining captives. On her return to the space ship however she found that things had started to change.

The Jaffa were now improvising some lights by starting small fires with their weapons. Their backs were to Jenny so nobody saw her return in the shadows away from the fires. In the light from the fires both the Jaffa and Jenny were surprised to discover that all of the captives had now disappeared. In fact Angel had already quietly led the remaining captives back aboard the shuttle.

The engine of the shuttle now burst into life and lifted off the deck. At the same time the space doors began to open and the alarms began to sound. Knowing that the opening of the space doors meant a loss of air to breathe and a depressurisation of the deck the Jaffa rushed over to the teleportation controls and transported themselves to safety. Realising what was happening Jenny orbed away.

In the control cabin of the shuttle Angel joined Willow and Tara after leading the captives back into the shuttle and took the seat next to Willow.

"I hope you know what you're doing sweetie," said Tara to Willow. "Please be careful." Tara left Willow and Angel sat at the controls and went back to speak to the rescued captives about what was going on and deal with any injuries.

Prior to takeoff Willow had ordered the shuttle's computer to transmit a takeoff request to the main ship's computer in order to have the hanger doors opened. Willow now had more knowledge of the ship's systems than previously. She didn't want to again put herself in the position of trying to work directly against the sheer power of the ship's machines. This time she worked with the ship's systems and simply used the magical connections that she had built up to ensure that her requirements were fulfilled by the ship's computers, even if there were countermanding orders from the crew.

Willow had decided to fly the shuttle down to the planet. How difficult could it be? Well very difficult as it turned out. Willow was so far using a sort of magical telepathy to control the shuttle's guidance computer. She told the computer what she wanted to happen, in this case take off and leave the ship, and the computer made it happen. The difficulty was it took a while for the messages to be understood and translated into action. The shuttle began to move slowly forward towards outer space.

"Are you sure their instruments won't be able to detect this ship and fire on us after we leave?" asked Angel as the ship exited the hanger deck. While Angel had been taking care of the captives and getting them aboard, Willow and Tara had improvised a spell which was intended to keep the shuttle invisible to detection.

"Huh?" said Willow turning to Angel. With Willow's concentration disturbed the shuttle wobbled in its slow path to the outside.

"Never mind," said Angel. "Keep your mind on what you're doing."

Willow kept concentrating and manoeuvred the shuttle away from the mother ship. Now I want to fly down to the planet and land somewhere nice she thought. The shuttle did not change course. Huh, thought Willow, 'somewhere nice' is a bit vague. How about land at the very western end of the big blue island down there she thought whilst concentrating on the nearby planet.

Tara now walked back into the control cabin. She leant forward and placed a kiss on her partner's cheek. This caused the shuttle, which had started to dive towards the planet, to wobble even more violently than before.

"Tara!" pleaded Willow as she brought the shuttle under control. "Please honey, this is difficult enough."

But Tara ignored Willow and this time leant forward and placed a full on mouth to mouth kiss onto Willow. That was it. Willow completely lost control and the shuttle careered forward.

But Tara, Willow and Angel were no longer aboard. As Willow lost control Tara, who had taken a firm grip on both Willow and Angel, orbed. Jenny had orbed into the shuttle where she had met Tara. The two whitelighters had already orbed the captives down to the planet. Now Tara took Willow and Angel to join them.

xxxxxxxxxx

"OK," said Faith on entering the witches' library. "I'm bored. How about you guys telling me what you're researching?"

"Sit down, grab a book from that pile and I'll tell you what to look for," said Giles.

"Hey, I'm not that bored," said Faith holding up her hands in protest. "I just want to know what you're looking for. You know the rules Giles, watcher researches, slayer slays."

"Slayer?" said Daniel. "So are you The Slayer, The Vampire Slayer? The Chosen One mentioned in one of those old books I've got."

Faith glanced at Giles who nodded. "Well I suppose so," said Faith. "If you find any vampires you want slaying give me a ring. I'll give you a quotation, we can haggle a bit and if the price's right your vampire's dust."

"Faith!" said Giles.

"Oh yeah," said Faith. "We've got a special offer on at the moment. First vampire gets dusted free. According to Giles so does the second and the hundred and second. But Giles is British, doesn't understand American free enterprise. Anyway what exactly are you guys looking for?"

"We're trying to find out what the ancient witches of Kallistien did to get rid of the Goa'uld the last time," said Giles.

"And why they stayed away for so long," said Daniel. "We're hoping it's something we can use again."

"So?" said Faith. "How's it going? Have you got to the point yet where you come up with the secret formula or the long lost magic spell or do you have to wait for the last minute for that?"

"We think we know what it is in principle," said Giles. "We think it's some sort of stay-away spell. The sort that keeps the Goa'uld away without their realising it."

"The sort of thing that makes them forget they even heard of a place like Kallistien," said Daniel.

"Well that's all good," said Faith. "But?"

"But?" said Daniel puzzled. "What do you mean 'But?' "

"I know Giles," said Faith. "There's always a 'But' "

"But," said Giles, "if it works it'll probably keep everybody away. Everybody including us."

"You don't want to go home?" asked Faith. Now it was her turn to be puzzled.

"It's just that we hoped to find something we could use ourselves back on Earth and elsewhere against the Goa'uld," said Daniel. "But it probably won't be like that."

"Because?" asked Faith. "Come on guys. This is like pulling teeth."

"Because if it's the sort of thing we think it is it'll take a lot of power, a lot of witch power. Something like a world of witches to carry it out," said Giles. "Kallistien is probably the only place that could pull it off. Anyway we've got a lot more research to do because whatever it is we've only found hints so far."

"Well there is another sort of research you could do," said Faith.

"You mean try to find out if the Goa'uld have any records about what happened?" suggested Daniel.

"Nope," replied Faith. "I have something quite different in mind."


	18. Dragonflight

**Chapter Eighteen: Dragonflight**

"What is that?" asked Jack. "What the hell is that?"

"Well I know what it looks like," said Sam who like Jack had stopped dead on seeing what was ahead. "It looks like a dragon. But I suppose it's just some sort of local wildlife."

"Oh no," said the dragon. "I'm a dragon all right and I'm not really very wild at all. At least if everybody is polite," it added with a glare.

Jack had just followed Sam out onto the lawn at the back of the Kallistien witch HQ in Demantine. They had been told that transport had arrived to take them to the scheduled meeting with potential allies against the Goa'uld. Nobody had said anything about a dragon. I suppose they think they're being very funny thought Jack.

The dragon must have been at least thirty feet long and was very much the classical dragon. It had a long, reddish scaly body, a long neck and a large head. It had what could only be two large wings coming out of the middle of its back, wings that were at present folded and held down against its side. But the most frightening aspect of the whole creature was the dental armoury. Long rows of razor sharp teeth filled its mouth giving it the sort of smile that must have terrified dinosaurs in the days of tyrannosaurus.

"A talking dragon," said Sam. "How is that possible?"

"You mean the dragons where you come from don't talk?" asked the dragon. "I've never heard of mute dragons."

"No they don't," said Sam. "Uh, that is there aren't any dragons where we come from."

"As far as we know," said Jack looking at Phoebe who had now joined them. He was remembering all of the other things that SG-1, well mainly him, had only a short time before insisted did not exist. Phoebe smiled but said nothing.

"How sad," said the dragon. "You must come from a pretty drab and miserable place. No dragons indeed."

"What sort of dragon are you?" asked Phoebe. "Apart from the talking sort. I've seen dragons before but either they couldn't talk or they didn't want to. They weren't very friendly."

"You've met hostile dragons before and survived?" asked the dragon staring at Phoebe. He sounded surprised. "You must be tougher than you look."

"Yes I survived," said Phoebe smiling. "But the dragons didn't. You seem to be a much more friendly dragon so I'm sure we'll be able to get along."

"The dragons didn't survive?" puzzled the dragon. "It takes a great deal to kill a dragon. The only ones I've heard about dying in a very long time were the three...You were there? You were one of those who faced down the Hordes of Hell?"

"Something like that," said Phoebe who by now was receiving very puzzled looks from Jack and Sam. "But that's over and done with. I hope it won't stop you helping us."

"Hmm," said the dragon, continuing to stare at Phoebe. "Much, much tougher than you look."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well that went pretty well," said Wesley. "If I do say so myself."

Wesley was preening himself because of the success of the night attack on the Goa'uld camp which he had helped to plan. Wesley and Eve, while waiting for Jenny to return, had agreed to help the local Kallistians in their fight against the Goa'uld.

The two pronged attack had started after the shuttle with Jenny aboard, had taken off. The attackers had waited for the quiet hours of darkness and then launched the fire arrow attack on one side of the camp. Whilst that was going on scouts had been sent to take out the Jaffa guards around the landing field which was on the other side of the camp. The main force of Kallistians had then entered the camp from that side, leaving detachments to destroy the Jaffa vehicles and aircraft.

The attack had been intended as a hit and run raid but had developed into much more. The Kallistians had intended to do as much damage as possible and then withdraw as soon as the Jaffa started receiving reinforcements, as they usually did promptly via teleportation rings. This time no reinforcements arrived.

Something else was presumably occupying Marduk and his troops because any calls for aid from the Jaffa in the camp had gone unheeded. The attack on the camp had therefore continued until the camp and all the Jaffa vehicles and aircraft had been destroyed and the surviving Jaffa scattered or captured.

Buffy and the gang had joined in the fighting to the extent of stunning and disabling some of the Jaffa and capturing two senior officers. Xander had used his Zat gun and had shown Buffy how to use the stun function on the one she had taken from the Jaffa on the space vessel.

Following the destruction of the camp the Kallistians had dispersed to make themselves more difficult targets for Goa'uld reprisal. Buffy and the others had explained to Wesley and Eve how they had come to be on Kallistien while Wesley had led them back through the woods to the village of Hamindale.

Before they left the scene the travellers had witnessed what was probably one of the most comprehensive cover ups ever. Witches, working with the attackers had not taken part in the attack, staying back in reserve in order to deal with what turned out to be a non-existent counter attack.

Once everything was all over the witches worked together to erase what they saw as a scar on their world. The whole site, the camp, landing field and all was returned to nature. After a few hours during which the Kallistian attackers had scavenged what they could from the place, the witches had restored a fully developed forest to the area. It would be a major problem for the Jaffa to even find the location of what had been their base and even if they did they would find nothing there, well nothing but trees.

Before the clean up spell Buffy and the others had found the transport control area in the largest of the undamaged huts, in what looked like a central HQ building. But the destruction already done to the base by then meant that there was no power to operate the controls. There was therefore no discussion about whether or not to return to the spaceship.

After hearing about Buffy, Faith and Cordelia plus Xander's explanation of events in Sunnydale, Wesley and Eve told their story and the story of Giles's disappearance. Hamindale was the rendezvous point to meet with Jenny so Wesley was hoping that she would be there when they got back.

"Well I suppose Giles could be up there on that space station, spaceship or whatever," said Buffy. "But I don't think so. Jenny wouldn't have been heading north if she thought Giles was in orbit."

"Hey Will!" shouted Xander rushing forward.

Buffy looked up to find that Jenny had indeed now returned to the village and she had Willow and Tara with her. Buffy looked more closely and spotted Angel in the shadows of the porch of the building. She started trotting forward herself.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You're quiet," said Sam to Jack.

"I was just thinking about our next report," said Jack turning around briefly to Sam, who was sat behind him, and then glancing at Phoebe who was behind Sam. "You know, the report where we give the General a full and exact account of what went on, but we don't mention witches, dragons and things like that."

"We don't have to mention the local animal we rode on was a dragon," said Sam. "Just that it was a local animal which is sometimes used for transport."

"Who are you calling an animal?" said the dragon who turned its head completely around to stare at Sam. Since the dragon's head was about the size of Sam's whole body and was filled with razor sharp teeth Sam suddenly felt unable to speak. Sam couldn't help noticing that the dragon's breath was very warm, not to say hot and that made her wonder as well as worry.

"Stop teasing," said Phoebe to the dragon from her position on the flying dragon's back behind Sam. "Would you prefer to be called a creature, or a beast?"

"What's wrong with dragon?" muttered the dragon as it turned its head back to concentrate on flying once more. Sam let out a long breathe that she didn't realise she had been holding.

"So what do we say to the uh dragons when we get there?" asked Jack quietly. "And isn't there a quicker way to travel apart from sitting on the back of a dragon?"

"I could have travelled by broomstick," said Phoebe. "Perhaps you'd like to sit up behind me the next time I use one."

Jack briefly glanced back at Phoebe. Is she joking? She must be he thought. Phoebe just smiled.

"We're the ones who asked to be involved in planning the attack on the Goa'uld," said Sam. "The idea is to include the dragons in the attack. If they agree to help it might make a big difference."

"Yeah, well when I agreed to go to this meeting I didn't think we would be taking to dragons," protested Jack. "It wasn't actually mentioned by anybody," he added pointedly.

"We'll mainly be observers. It'll be the Kallistians who do most of the talking I think." said Phoebe meaning the three witches travelling nearby on the back of another dragon flying beside them.

They travelled in silence for a while, each with their own thoughts. The only sound was the wind and the slow flapping of the dragon wings. Sam couldn't puzzle out how such large creatures kept themselves airborne, let alone being able to carry three humans each on their backs.

Their destination was the top of a mountain, a mountain which rose high above an otherwise flat landscape. The dragon now angled down towards the summit. It might be a volcano thought Jack judging by the smoke rising from the crater on the top. Or is that smoke something to do with the dragons he wondered.

The dragon hovered, still high above the summit of the mountain but instead of flying down to land it suddenly, without warning turned upside down. Jack, Sam and Phoebe were abruptly thrown off the dragon's back and began falling towards the wide bowl shaped crater below.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"And I say this proves the incompetence of the Stargate Command," said Senator Kinsey. "It's their job to know what the Goa'uld are up to."

"That's unfair," said Senator Trubshawe. "The SGC don't have either the responsibility or the resources to police the world for Goa'uld or Jaffa."

Senator Kinsey and his colleague had asked for an urgent meeting with General Hammond at the SGC. They had brought Colonel Maybourne with them and the Colonel had revealed that the NID had discovered that the Goa'uld were operating their own Stargate on Earth.

"But I understand the SGC can detect another Stargate operating from Earth," replied Kinsey. "Well, why didn't they detect the one being used by Marduk's Jaffa?"

"General?" said Senator Trubshawe turning to General Hammond.

"We can only detect the operation of another Stargate if it uses the Earth dialling code," said General Hammond. "I assume that the Gate the Goa'uld have been using gets round this somehow. They might have been able to make it work somehow by using another code, we don't know. They carry around Gates on some of their ships without interfering with other Gates."

"So the SGC had no way to know that the Goa'uld were operating another Stargate," said Trubshawe. "The other agencies like the NID have that responsibility. They are meant to watch out for something like that and call in the SGC when they turn up anything about Goa'uld activity on Earth."

"Which is exactly what they've done and why we're having this meeting. It's a good job the NID have been doing such a good job," replied Senator Kinsey. "Colonel?" added the senator turning to Colonel Maybourne.

"Now this is not certain but we have good reason to believe that the Gate is in the town of Sunnydale California," said Maybourne. "We're keeping watch on a building there."

"So why haven't you moved in Colonel?" asked Senator Trubshawe.

"It's like Senator Kinsey said," replied Maybourne, "this is now an SGC matter. I'm here to hand over to the SGC. It's up to General Hammond and his people what to do next."

As he spoke Maybourne remembered his last conversation with Lilah Morgan. She had continued to refuse to have anything to do with Sunnydale or going up against Willow.

"And if you've any sense you'll leave her alone as well," she had said but she had then smiled. "But if there's somebody you know, somebody you really don't like, send them after Willow and her people. And make sure they have plenty of guns with them. She really doesn't like guns."

"But I should warn you," said Maybourne to General Hammond, "the people we think have this Gate are very dangerous. Your people should be well armed and there better be a lot of them."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Are you sure this is going to work?" asked Piper.

"Now you're sounding like Jack," said Prue. "Why shouldn't it work? Cordy knows what she's doing."

So it's Jack now is it thought Piper smiling to herself, not Colonel O'Neill? I wonder if that'll go anywhere? Not if Sam Carter has anything to do with it I think.

Faith had been told about the Charmed Ones' fight against the Replicators and the time-jumping involved. Her suggestion had been that if you wanted to find out what had happened years before why not travel back in time and find out?

Cordelia would not be joining the time travel party. She felt very reluctant to go but didn't know why. She had got to the stage of trusting such feelings and acting on them so she would be staying behind. She had therefore been given the job of making sure that Prue, Piper and Paige would have their powers when they arrived in the past. It was hoped that even if the sisters' magic disappeared the spell done by Cordelia would remain in force.

Having completed her spell Cordelia handed back the amulets to the sisters. She had carried out a spell on the amulets, the same amulets provided by Willow and Tara prior to the fight to close the Hellmouth. The plan was that the amulets would automatically trigger the sisters' powers immediately on arrival in the past.

Prue, Piper, Paige, Faith and Daniel were ready. At Prue's signal the three sisters started their time travel spell. To Giles and Cordelia who were watching it seemed as if the five people simply faded away.

Originally Teal'c had been set to go with the women as an expert on the Goa'uld but he had been called back to Earth by General Hammond to deal with tracking down the Goa'uld Stargate on Earth. Daniel, who had originally intended to remain and continue the research with Giles had therefore joined the team as the Goa'uld expert.

Although nobody knew exactly how far back in time to jump the witches explained that this was not a problem. They had worded their spell to take them to the most appropriate time. They had done the spell as a Power of Three spell to make sure there was enough power to move the five of them a long way back in time.

As a safety precaution the time travel spell included an automatic return provision. When the time was up the travellers would return automatically. In an emergency, provided they had their powers, the sisters would be able to do an earlier return spell but the safety feature was there in case they were not able to do this and in case the group were separated in the past.

They group would all return to the same place, the witches' library, and the time elapsed back in the present would be the same as the time spent in the past. Prue explained this as a way of minimising the magic power and effort needed in doing the spell.

"When do Buffy and Angel and the others get here?" asked Cordelia after the time travellers had faded away.

"Probably tomorrow," said Giles, "late tomorrow if their train is on time."

After the meeting between Buffy's group and Willow, Tara, Angel and Jenny the Whitelighters had orbed everybody to the local Kallistian HQ. The local witches there had made contact with their base and reported what had happened.

Everybody soon realised that for the first time an attack was now possible on Marduk's Orbital HQ ship. Unlike the low key assistance granted to Wesley, Jenny and Eve the witches now pulled out all the stops to get the Earth people to the capital. A combination of teleportation and rail travel would soon bring the group to the city and a reunion with their friends.

It had been decided to go ahead with the time travel mission despite the new prospect of being able to defeat Marduk. Even if Marduk and all of his forces were destroyed there was still the threat of Apophis, so knowledge of a long term solution was still needed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack fell through space wondering if this was finally it, finally the end when he suddenly felt an arm around his waist as somebody grabbed him from behind. His descent slowed and then he found himself flying through the air. He finally came into a gentle landing. Jack turned around and to find that Phoebe had been holding him. She also had grabbed hold of Sam who was also unharmed.

"More magic?" asked Jack.

"Didn't I mention it," replied Phoebe. "I can fly. It's one of my witch abilities. I don't use it a lot because it's so visible."

"Thanks for the rescue but did the dragon know that?" asked Sam. "Did he know you could fly or was he trying to kill us?" As she spoke Sam looked around and upwards, wondering if they now had to deal with a homicidal dragon.

"I think the dragon was a she," replied Phoebe. "I don't think she was trying to kill us, just dump us in the crater lake over there."

The three travellers were now in the volcanic crater at the top of the mountain and lower down the slope was a small lake of black water. The volcano seemed to be still active since gas was escaping from various scattered points around the crater.

"I was warned it might happen," said Phoebe. "The dragons sometimes do that as a joke, especially if they've been carrying somebody they don't like. I thought the Kallistians would have told you as well."

"It's like Faith says, the Kallistian witches try not to have much to do with non-witches," said Sam.

"As if I haven't enough to worry about, now there's a dragon who doesn't like me," muttered Jack.

As they talked the three travellers walked over to where the witches had landed. Their dragon had not tried to dump them in the lake but had landed normally.

"So why haven't these dragons been brought in before?" asked Sam of Phoebe. "It's not like the war just started."

"I think the Kallistien witches have underestimated the Goa'uld," said Phoebe. "They only really got worried when they realised the Goa'uld were getting their own witches. Anyway with dragons it's always a matter of cost. Whenever the dragons have agreed to an alliance in the past they've always asked a high price. The Kallistians have been reluctant to pay it."

"Are we talking gold?" asked Jack. "All the fairy stories I remember say dragons like gold and sit around sort of watching it until the hero comes along, kills them and steals it."

"Fairy stories?" said Phoebe. "I never thought of that. Whenever I've met fairies I never got them to tell me any stories. I'll remember that the next time I meet one."

Jack looked at Sam and Sam shrugged. Jack shook his head. He was not going to ask. One day everything will be back to normal he thought. All I'll have to bother about then is weird aliens trying to kill me and ordinary things like that.

"Anyway it's not gold or treasure these dragons want," continued Phoebe. "They want cattle."

"Cattle?" asked Sam, puzzled.

"To eat, dragons have big appetites," said Phoebe. "But at least they don't eat people. Not unless they really dislike them," she added mischievously.


	19. Downstairs Upstairs

**Chapter Nineteen: Downstairs Upstairs**

"These people are not Jaffa and they are not working for the Goa'uld," said Teal'c. "They have captured a Stargate from some people who were working for the Goa'uld. That does not make them our enemies. General Hammond tells me they might become our friends and allies."

Teal'c was briefing the SGC security team which had been sent to Sunnydale to take possession of the Stargate that the NID had reported was probably there. Although Colonel Maybourne had tried his best to ensure that the SGC went in hard and maybe upset Willow and her fellow witches, General Hammond knew from Leo that he was probably not dealing with enemies.

The General had thought about contacting Leo to tell him they knew where the Stargate was and to try once again to persuade him to co-operate or at least to try to persuade the people holding the Gate to co-operate.

The General had realised that he could not do it. It could result in the Gate being moved. That might have disastrous consequences if the Goa'uld used the Gate again or some other unknown force used the Gate to come to Earth. Anyway if the NID found out that the General had done such a thing they would undoubtedly represent it as treachery and use it to have him removed as commander of the SGC. It might enable them to get their wish and take control of the SGC altogether.

Teal'c, having briefed his team, now waited for everybody to get into position before making a move. He was under no illusions. If the people in the building in front of him had anything like the magic power of the Halliwell sisters it would be very difficult, if not impossible to take possession of anything without their consent.

The clocked ticked round to the designated time. Since all signals had been received indicating everybody was in position Teal'c got out of his car. Accompanied by three uniformed members of the SGC including Major Larkham he walked up the drive and rang the bell.

The door was opened by a young blonde woman.

"Miss Summers?" asked Major Larkham.

"Who wants to know?" replied the woman.

"Major Larkham," said the major, "US Air Force."

The major held out her ID and a search warrant.

"I have been authorised to search these premises as a matter of National Security in order to take possession of secret equipment which we have reason to believe is here," she explained.

The woman took the search warrant and pointedly kept them waiting while she took time to read it. She then handed it back. "You'd better come in," she said opening the door wide and standing aside.

"If you'll take us to the Stargate we'll try to be out of here as soon as possible," said the major.

The woman ignored the major. "You know that hat does nothing for you," she said to Teal'c. "You still look like a Jaffa. So how come a Jaffa is working for the Air Force? If this really is an Air Force operation."

"If you know of the Jaffa then you should know that not all Jaffa work for the Goa'uld," said Teal'c. "I am one who does not. I have worked against them now for some years."

"Says you," replied the woman. "Anyway if you expect me to help you you're wasting your time. Go ahead, search away but you won't find anything. Have fun but don't damage anything and don't use any weapons. You'll regret it if you do."

Teal'c nodded to the corporal standing behind him. The corporal waved his right arm and four more uniformed members of the security team walked up the drive.

As seen from the outside there were two floors to the large building with more space above in the roof as well as probably a basement area. There were also garages and other outbuildings at the rear. As previously arranged two of the men went to the garages and outbuildings to search and two others were detailed off to search the back of the house. Major Larkham took one soldier with her upstairs and Teal'c, with Corporal Carew went to where he thought the Gate was most likely to be located; the basement.

The blonde woman did not accompany any of the search parties. After shutting the front door she went into the lounge and picked up a book. "Enjoy yourselves," said Amy with a smile and a wave of her hand. She began to read with every indication of complete unconcern.

Going down into the basement was via a long flight of steps. As he reached the landing at the bottom Teal'c found that the steps turned back down an equally long second flight of steps. The basement was clearly quite a long way below ground level and Teal'c began to wonder whether there was an intermediate level that was being hidden from them. Maybe a more shallow basement that could be reached from another flight of stairs elsewhere in the building or perhaps from an outbuilding.

Teal'c and the corporal reached the bottom of the second flight of steps but they were not yet in the basement because there was another long flight leading downwards.

"This is a pretty deep basement sir," said the corporal. "Wonder why they made it so deep."

Teal'c did not answer. He continued down the third flight of stairs and was not surprised to find himself at the top of a fourth flight. Something was clearly going on, maybe something magical. Were the stairs literally never ending? Apparently not because sounds became audible from below. Somebody was climbing the stairs.

The lighting on the stairs was poor. Although there was a light halfway down each flight of stairs it was never possible to see more than a few steps up or down at any one time. Teal'c and the corporal were not able to see who it was approaching as they waited on the landing between the third and fourth flight.

Major Larkham stepped out of the gloom and saw Teal'c and Corporal Carew standing on the landing a few steps above her. "How did you get up here?" she asked. "I thought you were going down to the basement?"

"We have indeed been travelling down to the basement," replied Teal'c. "We have done nothing but go downstairs towards the basement."

"Well we've done nothing but go upstairs," said the major. "And it seems to be taking forever."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The train pulled into the station after dark so thankfully there were no complications with the vampires Angel and Drusilla. On the journey Buffy had asked Willow if she could make something that would allow the vampires to move about in the daytime, something like the Ring of Amara. Willow's response was she would look into it but Tara had objected.

"The trouble with making something like that is, it might someday get into the wrong hands," explained Tara. "And it might qualify as black magic anyway, letting vampires move around in daylight. I don't think Willow should try anything like that."

So that was that. Buffy wasn't even sure Angel would wear something like that anyway since he had destroyed the original Ring of Amara so she didn't press the point. She certainly didn't want to risk Willow going black again.

As Buffy and the gang left the train she could see a welcome committee waiting at the end of the track. They were nearly all Kallistians but there was one familiar face amongst the half dozen people stood waiting; Cordelia.

After the greetings between Cordelia and the others, including in Buffy's opinion an over affectionate hug between Angel and Cordy the gang were introduced to the waiting Kallistians. The Kallistians included two witches and a General.

The Kallistian witches already knew about Buffy, or rather they thought they did. They knew Buffy wasn't a witch so their main interest was in Willow, Tara and Jenny. They had been told about the orbing ability used to rescue the Kallistien captives from Marduk's spaceship and were interested in how this ability might be used to attack the Goa'uld.

Neither Tara nor Jenny were happy with the attention they were getting. Tara drew Jenny aside. "We've got to talk about all this," she said to the other Whitelighter. "Before everything gets out of hand. We can't do what they want."

"No we can't," said Jenny. "And we can't stay here forever either, we've got other responsibilities back on Earth."

Cordy stepped in to calm the hubbub. "Look, we can't talk about all this on a railroad station. There's a big reception planned for tomorrow after everybody's got some rest. There's a hotel prepared with rooms for everybody. Let's go there and I can tell you all about what's been happening with everybody at this end."

"Any news of Giles?" asked Jenny.

"Giles is fine," said Cordelia. "He's waiting at the hotel."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The mist cleared and the five time travellers found themselves standing on a grassy hillside next to a castle. It was dark and chilly and it was raining.

"Now remember everybody," said Prue. "We're here as observers, just as observers. We mustn't do anything to compromise the time line, even if it looks like a good idea at the time. If we change things then everything changes in the future, maybe for the worse."

"Can we really change the timeline?" asked Faith. "Surely anything we do has already been done so it won't make any difference?"

"We know it's possible because we did change things a little the first time we travelled back in time," explained Piper.

"If that's the case then logically the further back in time you travel the bigger the differences you can cause," said Daniel. "And I think we've just made a very big jump."

"Avoid using your powers as far as possible," said Prue to her sisters. "At least where anybody can see you."

"That'll be a change won't it," said Piper sarcastically. "Anyway have we still got our powers? We'd better check."

"OK," said Paige holding out her hand. "I'll see what I can do. Stone!" A stone on the ground nearby disappeared and reappeared in her hand. Paige then disappeared as she orbed away thus proving that she still had that power. She returned a few minutes later.

"Yup," said Paige. "It still works the same. I can still orb to the places I got to know back in the future but I still can't orb all over the planet like I do back on Earth."

Whilst Paige had been gone the other sisters had tested their own powers. Prue had thrown a few stones into the nearby woods with her power and Piper had frozen and exploded some of them in mid flight. They had then taken an interest in their immediate surroundings.

Although it was dark somebody was still awake in the castle judging from the lights showing in various places. On the other side of the castle was a small town, well small by later standards. It was presumably the nucleus of the later capital city Demantine.

"I suggest we try the town first," said Daniel. "If we're really back in the time when the Goa'uld ruled then the castle is probably full of Jaffa and maybe a Goa'uld or two."

"Why don't we try both," said Prue. "Can you orb into the castle Paige?"

"Yeah," said Paige. "I had a quick look. It was very quiet although there was a sort of humming, as if there were machines of some sort throbbing away. It looks like a medieval castle but they've got electric lights inside."

"OK," said Prue. "Piper and Faith, you go with Daniel into the town. Paige and I'll have a look around the castle."

"The town gate is locked up for the night," said Paige to Piper, Faith and Daniel. "And it's guarded. But the taverns still seem to be open. I'll orb you into the town and then come back to pick up Prue for our jump into the castle."

"We need a rendezvous point," said Piper. "How about we all meet back here same time tomorrow?"

"We'd better rendezvous before that," said Prue. "You guys hire a couple of rooms in one of the taverns. When we're done in the castle we'll come and find you."

As Paige put her arms around Piper, Daniel and Faith, Daniel muttered quietly to Piper. "Is she usually this bossy?"

"Have you got a big sister?" replied Piper equally quietly.

"I see what you mean," replied Daniel.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Teal'c, Major Larkham and the two soldiers went all the way to the bottom of the stairs and back out the door at the bottom. They found themselves in what looked like a woodland glade. The door through which they had come now looked like a tree. The Major tried to open the door again but it felt like a tree as well. She was even able to walk all the way round it. There seemed to be no way to open a tree.

A bird started singing somewhere up in the branches of the tree, sounding for all the world like somebody chanting 'hurry, hurry, hurry', over and over again in a high pitched voice. Corporal Jenkins pointed his gun upwards trying to find the bird but his gun suddenly turned into a live snake. He dropped the gun and the snake slithered away.

"What's going on sir?" asked the corporal to Teal'c. "This is all getting on my nerves."

"I think that's the general idea," said Major Larkham. "Why don't we just wait here? We won't get anywhere until they stop playing games."

Suddenly a large white kangaroo jumped out from behind another tree. A second tree that did not seem to be there a moment before. The kangaroo was human sized and behind it could now be seen the entrance to a cave.

"You're late you know," said the Kangaroo with the voice of a young woman, turning to go into the cave.

"Cordelia Chase," said Teal'c. "Faith, The Halliwell Sisters, Rupert Giles."

The kangaroo stopped. "What?" it said. "How do you know those names?"

"We're not your enemies," said Teal'c. "Can we stop the magic games please? I mention those names because they are people I met recently. I have been working with them. I see you know who they are."

The woodland glade disappeared and they found themselves standing in the entrance hall of the house. The image of the kangaroo dissolved to reveal a dark haired young woman, Dawn in fact. She turned to look at another woman who until then had not been noticed by the SGC people. A blonde haired woman but not the same woman who had let them into the building.

"Does this mean we can't play any more tricks on them?" asked Dawn.

"We'd better talk with them," said Anya. "If they know what happened to Cordy, Faith and Giles they might know about Buffy as well. But they'd better not be lying."

"Are you connected to those SGC people who Leo told us about?" asked Dawn.

"Indeed," said Teal'c. "We are from the SGC. I presume you refer to Leo Wyatt."

"Well if you'd told us that in the first place you could have avoided all that going up and down stairs," said Anya.

"Can't we talk to them after we've finished the game?" pleaded Dawn. "The next bit with all the alligators, that's the best bit."

"Just think yourselves lucky you don't have to meet all the bunnies," said Anya to the SGC people as she led the way into the lounge. "You'd better go and get Amy and Fred and the others," she added to Dawn.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's a different dragon," said Sam quietly, "I think."

Jack turned round from his position sitting in front of Sam on the dragon's back and gave her a 'so what' sort of look but he said nothing. He had no intention of upsetting another dragon and being thrown off into space again. Yes Phoebe was with them again but he didn't want to rely on her ability to fly a second time for his survival.

The meeting with the dragons had gone well, or as well as could be expected. Dragons were long lived, had good memories and could bear a grudge for a very long time. They remembered the Goa'uld and had a few scores to settle with them. They had therefore agreed to join the humans in a major assault on Marduk's forces.

When the time was right they would attack some of Marduk's bases. They were also confident that in certain circumstances they would be able to deal with some of the Goa'uld flying machines. As part of the agreement two of the witches had stayed behind with the dragons as liaison. Jack had left his radio with them and shown them how to use it. This would help to ensure that everything could be synchronised properly when the time came.

The major disagreement had not been with the dragons but with Phoebe. Phoebe was attending the meeting as the representative of the Earth or Tau'ri witches and magic users. She had explained that the Earth witches were happy to seek the help of the dragons in the struggle but felt that this should stop short of encouraging them to kill humans. Transport and destruction of weapons and machines yes, killing no.

Jack appreciated Phoebe's point of view but sided with the Kallistians and the dragons in pointing out that you couldn't fight a war without killing people. The people they would be killing had done plenty of killing themselves. They might be nice people in other circumstances but sweet reason would not be enough to stop the Goa'uld or persuade all the Jaffa to put down their weapons.

The dragon who had carried Jack, Sam and Phoebe to the meeting had spread the word about her conversation with Phoebe and about Phoebe's previous experience with dragons. It seemed that Phoebe's involvement in the killing of some other dragons had earned her a great deal of respect amongst these dragons so they listened when she spoke to them.

"OK," said Phoebe, "I realise that sometimes it's a case of kill or be killed but I don't want any dragon to do any killing of humans that is not strictly necessary. If I hear of any unnecessary killing at all I won't be happy and nor will my sisters or any of the other Tau'ri witches."

That had reduced everybody to silence and the meeting had then broken up. Now they were being taken back to Demantine by another dragon. Just as Jack was silent to avoid upsetting another dragon Phoebe was silent and lost in her own thoughts.

"Bandits at two O'clock," called Sam who had spotted two aircraft above them. Since all aircraft on Kallistien were Goa'uld craft they automatically qualified as bandits. As Sam spoke the dragon banked left and dived. Phoebe began chanting.

As the dragon continued its steep dive, heading for a large wooded area, Phoebe continued to chant. Jack and Sam just concentrated on holding tight to whatever they could to avoid being thrown off the back of the dragon.

The two aircraft dived towards the dragon. Jack knew that they must be in range and in the sights of the pilots but to his surprise neither fired. They dived straight past the dragon before turning and climbing to regain altitude. They can't believe what they're seeing thought Jack.

Meanwhile the dragon entered the wood and landed amongst the trees beside a narrow path. "You'd better get off here," said the Dragon. "I've got to head back. I can't risk meeting any more of those things. You'll have to make your own way from here."

"I can keep you safe," said Phoebe to the dragon. "That spell I did made us disappear from their sight and their instruments."

"Yes, but after I've dropped you off in the city you won't be with me on the way back," replied the dragon. "Anyway I've got to get back now to tell the others about these things. I've heard of them but they've not been seen around here before."

The three travellers climbed off the dragon. Jack started to grumble. "Great, right in the middle of nowhere..."

Sam interrupted Jack and addressed the dragon. "We're not from this world. Could you please tell us exactly where we are and how we get back to the city?"

The dragon, who had started to glare at Jack, turned his head towards Sam. "Head south-eastward. You'll soon find a road. All roads lead to Demantine." Saying no more the dragon leapt into the air and flew away north.

"OK," said Sam taking out her compass. "South east."

"What are you doing," asked Jack, addressing Phoebe.

Phoebe had stepped off the path and was picking up pieces of wood, examining them and discarding some whilst putting others carefully into a pile. She looked up. "What does it look like I'm doing?" she said. "I'm making a broomstick."


	20. Down in the Dungeons

**Chapter Twenty: Down in the Dungeons**

They landed just outside the city and began to walk through the streets. Phoebe had indeed been joking about transporting everybody on a broomstick for which Jack was grateful. Riding a dragon was both peculiar and dangerous but at least it was somewhat heroic. Sitting on a broomstick behind a witch would have been downright stupid.

Phoebe had used her flying power to carry herself, Jack and Sam in a series of long night-time hops on their way back to the city. It would have been OK thought Jack if Sam hadn't remarked on how much it was like travelling with Peter Pan. It did in fact take a bit of getting used to but Jack and Sam were both experienced parachutists and that stood them in good stead.

It would be better if Phoebe had described what she did as levitation thought Jack. Such things as levitation, telekinesis, teleportation and so on simply sounded so much better, more scientific, than flying, using magic powers and casting spells. Jack knew very well which set of terms he would use when making his reports to General Hammond.

Phoebe's search through the scattered pieces of wood lying in the forest had not been all playacting. She had finally found what she had been looking for, a nondescript piece of wood which she pronounced was just what she needed. It was, she explained, a piece of dowsing wood. After casting a simple spell it would act as their compass to lead them back to the city.

"Compasses we've got," Jack had explained pulling out his from his pocket. Sam had nodded in agreement and held up hers.

"OK," said Phoebe. "But how do you know your compasses are pointing to this planet's magnetic north and not to its magnetic south? Do you know where magnetic north is on this planet?"

Jack smiled. "We've visited a few crazy planets before now," he agreed. "So we don't take anything for granted. I don't know all about the local magnetic field but I do know that the dragon flew us north-west by my compass when we left the city so I think a general route south-east should take us back there."

"And that's the direction the dragon gave us, south-east," said Sam.

"That'll probably work OK then," said Phoebe. "But I'll still prepare a dowsing stick just in case. When it's ready it'll keep pointing in exactly the direction of the city, wherever we are. But keep checking your compasses, just in case."

The dowsing stick had worked exactly as advertised. Once Phoebe had cast her spell on it Jack took a reading of the direction it originally pointed, south-east. At every stop on the way it continued to point in the same direction. Now it had brought them back to the city. Once on the outskirts of the city the dowsing stick proved to be really useful since none of the Earth people knew their way through the streets. Phoebe used the stick to steer them right back to their hotel.

They had decided to walk the final lap through the city streets rather than fly through the city itself. Even though this was a city, indeed a world, that knew all about powerful witches Phoebe felt it best not to be too blatant in the use of her power. Besides, as Sam pointed out it was quite likely that the Goa'uld had agents in the city. There was no need to advertise to everybody what she could do.

This was one reason why Phoebe had decided to fly only at night. In a world that used guns they would make a prominent target for anybody who was an enemy or who just didn't like flying witches.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At Prue's request Paige orbed the two of them to the very bottom level of the castle. As expected this was a sub-basement dungeon area. Prue intended to explore the dungeons first and see if there were any prisoners there. She explained that any prisoners they found there should be prime sources of information about current events and the state of the struggle against the Goa'uld.

"And after questioning these prisoners what'll we do with them?" asked Paige.

"What do you mean do with them?" asked a puzzled Prue.

"Well we can't rescue them can we, without changing the timeline?" said Paige. "Even questioning them might change things."

"Ah, I should have thought of that," said Prue. "Perhaps we can overhear them talking without them noticing us."

"And if we're really lucky the Goa'uld might be torturing somebody for information," said Paige sarcastically. "And we can have grandstand seats. That's the sort of thing they used to do in dungeons. I don't want to see any of that. I don't think I could stop myself doing something about it."

"OK, if anything like that's going on you orb us away at once," said Prue hoping they were not faced with anything like that during their time in the past.

Paige looked at her elder sister but said nothing more. She didn't think she could just walk away, or rather orb away if something horrible was going on and she didn't think Prue could either. Hopefully they wouldn't be faced with something like that.

Being late at night the sisters expected the dungeons to be quiet with perhaps nobody awake except a guard or two. As it turned out the dungeons were not only quiet but pitch black as well. Prue muttered a spell to produce a small floating witch light to enable the sisters to look around them.

They were in a narrow corridor. A filthy, low ceiling corridor filled with cobwebs, and what were probably droppings left by the local rodents. On one side was a plain brick wall, on the other a series of solid doors, each with a small panel at approximately eye level that contained metal bars.

"This area becomes the basement of the witches' library back in our time," whispered Paige.

Prue and Paige went along the corridor and peered inside each cell. Prue pushed the light through the bars into each cell in turn but they were all empty. Either the Goa'uld of this time didn't take prisoners or they kept them somewhere else.

Prue led the way around the corner at the end of the corridor into a large room. This room was also empty of occupants and judging by the dust that lay thickly around, it hadn't been used for a long time. The only piece of furniture was an old wooden table but there was no chair. A flight of stairs led up into the darkness on the right. On the opposite side of the room was the entrance to a second corridor.

"Listen!" whispered Paige.

Both sisters stopped and Prue extinguished her witch light. The sound of voices came from the other corridor as well as a little light, indicating that there was some activity in this part of the castle after all.

Prue led the way across the room and into the other corridor. Paige kept hold of her hand in order to orb both of them away to safety in the event of any danger. They walked cautiously along the new corridor until they could hear what was being said.

"Why not?" asked a female voice. "If you think about it, it's in your interest as much as mine."

"I should just give you a symbiote, that way I know you'll be loyal," said a male voice.

"The way you're loyal to Mitra?" replied the woman with a laugh. "Do you want another Goa'uld to have that much power? The power of a witch combined with the power of a Goa'uld? You're better off just trusting me. You know I can't take your place the way I am now, but with a symbiote..."

By now Prue and Paige had reached the end of the corridor. They resisted the temptation to peek around the corner to see who was talking. They wouldn't recognise anybody and they might be spotted. In any event it was clear from the conversation that some sort of arrangement was being made between a Kallistien witch and a Goa'uld who was hoping to improve his position in the Goa'uld hierarchy.

"OK," said the male voice. "But if it doesn't work, or you betray me, I'll be back and I'll turn this whole world to ashes."

As he spoke the last sentence the voice became louder and the light began to brighten, indicating that the man/Goa'uld was coming towards them so Paige orbed the two of them back to the darkened entrance to the first corridor. There they waited in the darkness to get a glimpse of the man and hopefully the witch as well.

A few moments later the figure of a man appeared carrying a bright light of some description. As expected he went straight up the stairs on the right without stopping. Prue concentrated on studying the man as well as she could in the available light. She wanted to be able to recognise him if she ever saw him again.

The sisters continued to wait and a few minutes later the witch too came out of the corridor. She however did not go up the stairs. She had her own witch light which preceded her out of the corridor. Once in the room she waved to brighten the light which also rose up to a central position lighting up the whole room.

For the fist time the sisters could see the witch's face and to Prue's amazement it was a face she recognised. She glanced at Paige but then realised that Paige would not recognise the woman because she had never met her.

"Why don't we have a chat?" said the Kallistien witch. As she spoke she wiped the dust off the end of the table with a handkerchief that she brought out of her sleeve. She then sat down on the table and looked straight at the dark corridor in which Prue and Paige were standing. There was nobody else in the room. Prue and Paige exchanged glances. Was she talking to them?

"Yes, I am talking to you," said the Kallistien witch. "Perhaps you can tell me just what you're up to."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A lot of heads turned as Daniel followed Piper and Faith into the Tavern. One of the consequences of travelling with beautiful women thought Daniel but then he realised there might be another reason. All of the travellers had been kitted out with period costume to help them fit in without being particularly noticed. However they had overlooked one important detail.

Just like ancient Earth people, ancient Kallistians were much poorer than their modern descendants. The costumes worn by the travellers might well be in period but they were brand new and obviously of a much better quality than the clothes being worn by everybody else. It must look as if some high born aristocrats are slumming it thought Daniel.

The tavern keeper bustled forward and gave a short bow each to Piper and Faith before addressing Daniel. He looked like a typical tavern keeper, portly, middle aged and balding. "And how can I help you my lord?"

"I'm not a lord," said Daniel. "We're merchants new to the city. Travellers from the north. Does this tavern have high quality rooms to rent?" He decided not to pretend to be an aristocrat since he would have to come up with a suitable title and he had no idea what was appropriate. Claiming to be merchants might at least provide a plausible reason for why they were so well dressed.

Both Piper and Faith could see that things had not gone according to plan since everybody in the tavern was staring at them. Their intended low key entry had turned out to be something of a local event. They looked at one another but said nothing, silently deciding to leave Daniel to handle matters.

"Certainly my lord, uh sir," replied the tavern keeper. "If you will come this way there are some excellent rooms upstairs."

The tavern keeper started to move towards the nearby staircase when he was interrupted by a shout from the watching audience.

"Witch!" yelled a man walking towards the three newcomers, pointing straight at Piper. He was a thin, grubby, black coated man in need of a shave. "She's a witch!" he continued, making it clear that this was an accusation and very much not a friendly welcome. Obviously the man was hostile to witches.

The pointing man held a small black book in one hand and a knife in the other. He turned towards the people in the main tavern saloon as if expecting them to support him before turning back and aggressively waving his knife. Murmurings from the crowd began in response. Piper raised her hands preparatory to freezing everybody but Daniel grabbed her and pulled down her hands. "Better not," he said quietly, "unless there's no alternative."

Daniel turned away from Piper intending to confront the man but Faith forestalled him. She stepped forward, knocked aside the man's knife carrying hand and took him out with one punch. The man fell to the floor unconscious and didn't move. The whole tavern fell silent.

Well so much for diplomacy and keeping a low profile thought Daniel. One punch! Looks like Teal'c got off lightly he thought, remembering the Faith/Teal'c confrontation, although Teal'c of course would have been better able to defend himself.

Daniel turned back to the tavern keeper. "We'll see the rooms now," he said as if what had just happened was perfectly normal and quite trivial.

"Um, uh, I forgot," said the tavern keeper. "I'm afraid the rooms are taken. Yes, they're taken. They've all been rented out... for the next ten days."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The big reception was joined late by Jack, Sam and Phoebe who had arrived late the previous night after their journey back from the meeting with the dragons. They soon discovered that this was not just a reception for the new arrivals but was also intended to be a planning strategy meeting for the war against the Goa'uld.

After a period devoted to introductions, explanations and general socialising General Selous, on behalf of the Kallistians outlined the plans that they had made. Now that there was a way to reach Marduk's spaceship, Tara and Jenny would transport witches and fighters up to the ship and these witches and fighters would take control of the ship. This would be a major blow against Marduk in terms of power, communications and central direction and, with luck Marduk himself might be killed or captured. If he survived, the spaceship could be used against his remaining forces.

At the same time as the attack on the spaceship, local attacks would be launched against the known Goa'uld bases. The dragons would take part in some of these attacks. The whole offensive would be co-ordinated by the communications supplied and in many cases operated by the SGC people who would also do their best to disrupt Marduk's communications.

The result of the offensive would hopefully be the elimination of Marduk's forces plus the capture of many weapons as well as his spaceship HQ. The latter especially could be vital in dealing with the anticipated return of Apophis.

The only problem with this plan, which satisfied both the Kallistians and the SGC people, was the absolute refusal of Tara and Jenny to have anything to do with it.

"Out job is helping and healing, protecting and when necessary rescuing." said Jenny. "We don't take part in wars, at least not in the sense of helping fight the battles. Not unless we are dealing with some sort of demonic or other supernatural evil. We certainly can't take sides in a war when there are humans on both sides."

"But those humans are controlled by alien parasites," said Selous. "They're as bad as any demons, maybe worse."

"Makes no difference I'm afraid," said Tara. "Your enemy is not demonic or supernatural so we can't help you in the fighting."

"There are, or there were witches on that ship," said Buffy. "I saw them. They're probably some of the people kidnapped by the Goa'uld. They need rescuing, even if they don't know it."

"We've thought about that," said Tara. "I can take part in a rescue mission, but we will not transport soldiers or help fight a battle. We can't have anything to do with killing people and we can't help you take possession of that ship to help you fight the war."

"It's not that we don't sympathise with the position you're in," said Jenny. "But our powers are strictly limited in what they can do, what they are for, in what we are allowed to do with them."

"Allowed by whom?" asked Sam. "Who are your bosses? Could you talk to them?"

"Yes," said Eve. "Don't you have free will? Aren't your people big on the whole free will thing?"

Jack groaned inwardly and walked away. Sam was finally going to get the philosophy debate she had been looking for. She might enjoy it but Jack could see it would be a complete waste of time. He had no idea of who exactly Jenny and Tara were answerable to and he really didn't want to know but he knew the type of people they were. They were people who knew they were right, right with a capital R.

Sam and the others could argue this every which way but it would make no difference, Jenny and Tara would not budge. As Jack saw it, it would be like asking the padre to man the machine gun. However necessary it was to keep firing, that was beside the point, the padre simply wouldn't do it.

"There might be another way," said somebody behind him.

Jack turned and found a dark haired man dressed in black stood behind him. With an effort he remembered which of the newcomers it was: Angel.

"Tell me more," replied Jack.

"Willow can open a portal on the ship," said Angel. "I might be able to persuade her to do it. A small team can go through and take control. Willow's a powerful witch, with her magic and the knowledge we already have of the ship I think we can make it work. We don't need to involve Tara and Jenny."

"You're close to Willow?" You don't think she agrees with Tara and Jenny?"

Angel smiled. "I'm not close in that way but I do know Willow, we go way back," he said. "It's not that she disagrees with the Whitelighters, she would never disagree with Tara about something like that, but she doesn't have the same, shall we say constraints as they do. So long as we do our level best to avoid killing humans I'm sure she'll help us take over the ship, and she won't mind if we then have to use it against the Goa'uld."

"Contrary to what some people might think we don't believe in doing any more killing than absolutely necessary either," said Jack. "But if you just pussy foot around it, you sometimes end up getting a lot more people killed, on both sides. A quick victory is generally the best way to save casualties. You haven't met him yet but Teal'c is a friend of mine. He's a Jaffa who used to work for the Goa'uld. He helps us recruit other Jaffa whenever we can, rather than kill them, but sometimes we do have to fight."

Angel held up his hand. "Hey, you don't have to persuade me, I've lived through two world wars, well sort of lived and I know sometimes you just have to fight. I'll have a chat with Willow and the others." Angel then walked away.

Jack shook his head. Just when he thought he was talking to somebody normal they dropped something like that into the conversation. And Whitelighters, what were they? He had understood that Tara was a witch. Did that make Paige Matthews a Whitelighter as well?


	21. Key to the Future

**Chapter Twenty One: Key to the Future**

Prue walked forward, followed by Paige. Yes, she could have asked Paige to orb them away but that might have meant there was a search for them and that could change everything. On the other hand whatever they did at this point might result in an alteration to the time line anyway.

"I felt it the moment you arrived," said the witch. "I also know you heard the end of my conversation with Ninurta."

"We're just here as observers," said Prue. "We mean you no harm. We're not your enemies, we're simply neutral."

The witch laughed. "Well I think you're probably witches yourselves, maybe something more," she said. "So I don't think the Goa'uld will think you're neutral. So far you've acted like spies except you could have tried to jump away just now but you didn't."

Prue didn't miss the 'tried', which implied that the witch thought she would have been able to stop them. Maybe she's right thought Prue, I suspect that even here and now she's got a lot of power.

"We're against the Goa'uld all right," said Paige. "It's just we mustn't interfere. Doing nothing is the best way we have of making sure they're defeated."

"And you know this because...Aha, you're time travellers," said the witch. "In your time you know the Goa'uld were defeated and you don't want to do anything to change that."

"We can't talk about..." began Prue.

"Of course not," said the witch, "but I can work things out for myself and I can tell by looking at you when I get it right."

Paige gave Prue a worried look. This witch had been making plans with one of the Goa'uld she thought. Did she want the Goa'uld to win? Had they already messed things up?

"You're both very transparent you know," said the witch. "I can't do much mind reading but I can pick up some of what you're thinking, a few of your stronger surface thoughts."

"So what do you intend to do?" asked Prue.

"Exactly what I was going to do anyway," said the witch. "Don't worry, I want to see the back of the Goa'uld as much as any other witch. If the Goa'uld are going to be defeated I don't want to change anything either."

"If that's true why were you talking to one of them?" asked Prue.

"The Goa'uld are an ambitious, quarrelsome lot," said the witch. "A Goa'uld's worst enemy is generally another Goa'uld. But then you probably know that. If everything works out as planned we'll see the back of the Goa'uld and their leader Mitra. Ninurta will play a big part in that, as well as doing very well for himself."

"But if you're from the future why don't you know all this?" asked the witch.

"Not everything gets in the history books," said Prue.

"True, but you're not here to fill out the blanks in the history books," said the witch. "Oh yes, I see it now. The Goa'uld are back, back in the future, and you want to know how we got rid of them the last time... this time."

"Something like that," said Prue. She seems much more formidable now than she was the last time I saw her she thought.

"We've met before?" asked the witch. Prue was about to say something in reply when the witch stopped her. "No, don't say anything. I really don't want to know anything about my future. It may never happen anyway now you've come back in time. But I can't stay here any longer. I've got to go. You'd better come with me or you're sure to get into some sort of trouble. What are your names?"

"I'm Prue and this is my sister Paige," said Prue.

"Who are you?" asked Paige.

"I'm the convenor of the central coven of Kallistien," said the witch. "Margatha di Rehanne, but most people just call me Glory."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Are you sure you're nothing to do with that Maybourne character?" asked Dawn.

"Or with Wolfram and Hart?" asked Fred. "Because your Colonel Maybourne was working with them. He was working with their Lilah Morgan so we don't trust him at all. Lilah Morgan is always bad news."

"He is not my Colonel Maybourne," said Teal'c. "You are right not to trust him. I have met Colonel Maybourne and have found him undeserving of any sort of trust so I understand your suspicions. I do not work with him nor with somebody called Lilah Morgan nor with anybody called either Wolfram or Hart. I work with the US Air Force, specifically Colonel O'Neill and General Hammond. These officers are deserving of your trust. They are very different to Colonel Maybourne."

"Well whoever you work with, the Stargate's staying right here until my sister and the others get back," said Dawn. "You're not shutting it down and you're not taking it away."

Following a talk between Teal'c and the remaining members of the Scooby Gang in Sunnydale an agreement had been reached whereby the SGC officially took over control of the captured Stargate. This enabled General Hammond to report success to his bosses and in particular to counter the criticisms of Senator Kinsey and the NID.

The agreement had only been window dressing however because although Teal'c and a security team were now present in the basement of the Sunnydale Slayer HQ, the Scoobies had not given up effective control of the Gate. General Hammond had briefed Teal'c to try to persuade the Sunnydale people to do just that which was why Teal'c had continued to press the point by emphasising the hazards of having an operable Stargate outside effective SGC control.

"OK, it's up and running," said Fred. "And we've got a bite! Somebody's contacting us." Since arriving in Sunnydale with Connor Fred had taken over the day to day operating of the Stargate. She powered up the Gate for an hour each day as agreed with Willow and the others before they left.

"Incoming transmission," said Lieutenant Torino one of Teal'c's team who had set up radio-communications to monitor any messages coming from the Gate.

"What does it say?" asked Teal'c.

"I don't know," said the lieutenant. "It was too brief. I think it was a standard message."

"Maybe a standard code asking for an acknowledgment?" suggested Gunn.

"And if they don't get it?" asked Dawn.

"Shut down the Gate," said Teal'c. "Break the connection now."

But even as he said it, it was too late. The wave of an incoming worm hole surged out of the Gate. As soon as it had settled back to a flat curtain a large metal cylinder came through the Gate and rolled down the ramp. At the same time the connection with the other world was lost.

"Get out of here!" ordered Teal'c. "It's a bomb!"

The SGC team all raced up the stairs and away from the bomb. All except Teal'c who paused at the bottom of the steps because he saw it as his duty to be the last out. To his surprise none of the Sunnydale people seemed concerned about the arrival of a bomb and none had joined the rush for the steps. On the contrary Amy walked over to the bomb and crouched down for a closer look.

"Yep, it's a bomb all right," she said. "There's a counter here stopped on seven."

"Aren't these things meant to stop on one?" asked Anya. "That's what happens in the movies, it increases the tension. Seven is a bit of an anti-climax."

Teal'c was puzzled. The bomb hadn't gone off and it seemed the Sunnydale people had known they were in no danger. But he hadn't seen anybody do a magic spell. Teal'c had by now seen the Halliwells carry out a number of magic spells. He gave an enquiring look towards Fred.

"This place is already protected by magic," said Fred to Teal'c. "We were never in any danger. So long as that bomb isn't taken out of here it won't go off."

"But sending us a bomb isn't very friendly is it?" said Amy. "How about we send it back to where it came from?"

"No!" said Dawn. "We don't know who's on the other side and we don't know how big the explosion will be. We might kill Buffy or Willow or some of the others."

"You are correct," said Teal'c. "It would not be wise to send the bomb back without knowing who might be affected. Some Goa'uld Stargates are located aboard their spaceships. You might destroy the spaceship but that would probably kill everybody who was aboard, including possibly some of your friends. I will have a bomb disposal team sent here."

"No need," said Amy who then began chanting. As she did so the bomb began to melt. It steadily dissolved into a puddle on the floor, which then faded away.

"Get away from the Gate!" ordered Fred urgently. "They've re-established the connection. It's the same place the bomb came from."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After leaving the now hostile tavern the travellers spent some time looking around the area before deciding to walk across to the other side of town. On the way they stopped off to spend a little time making their clothes look a bit more worn and lived in. They hoped that what had happened in the first tavern would be a five minute wonder and would not follow them all over town.

"I could use magic to disguise us," offered Piper. "Or at least do something about our clothes."

"Better not," said Daniel. "I don't know how these things work but could that make you more visible to some people? People who can perhaps see the effects of magic?"

"Yeah, how did that man know you were a witch?" asked Faith.

"Beats me," said Piper. "I'm a witch and even I can't tell another witch just by looking at them. I don't know anybody who can and I don't know how to tell that somebody has used magic on themselves or their clothes."

"Maybe we were just unlucky," said Faith. "Maybe that was the local crackpot. I expect he calls every woman he doesn't like a witch."

"You're saying one look at me and he didn't like me," asked Piper. "Thanks very much. He didn't call you a witch. Does that mean he liked you?"

"If he did I bet he changes his mind when he wakes up," said Daniel. "Anyway the reaction of the tavern keeper suggests to me there was something more involved."

"Perhaps the tavern keeper took one look at Faith and didn't like her," suggested Piper.

Faith didn't rise to Piper's comeback. The three travellers were now continuing their walk to the other side of town but Faith seemed distracted.

"We're being followed," said Faith quietly. "Take a left and keep going."

The travellers turned left with Faith in the rear. Once out of sight of whoever was following, Faith immediately leapt upwards and perched on a window ledge in the darkness. Daniel and Piper continued walking as Faith waited. Two darkly dressed figures turned the corner in pursuit and continued after Daniel and Piper, taking care to keep to the shadows. Silently Faith dropped down behind them.

Up ahead Daniel and Piper continued along the narrow, poorly lit street. Two figures appeared ahead of them blocking their path. Daniel and Piper stopped.

"Two more behind us," hissed Piper.

Daniel glanced back and saw the other two strangers and realised that Faith was no longer with them. Both pairs of strangers had stopped. Now they slowly walked forward. Piper stepped forward and waved her hands at the pair in front to freeze them. Nothing happened. She tried the same thing with the two followers but with the same lack of result.

All four men now changed. They were still approximately human but they all now had distorted faces with long teeth: vampires!

Daniel glanced at Piper. "What are they?" he asked.

"Vampires," replied Piper. "For some reason that sort of vampire changes into a Klingon when it gets worked up. Now a vampire slayer would be useful right about now," she added in a loud voice whilst looking around for Faith.

"Your witch's tricks don't work with us," said one of the vampires ahead of them. "We've got protection." he pulled out an amulet from his shirt which was hanging on a chain around his neck and waved it around.

Suddenly the two vampires behind simultaneously dissolved into dust. As the dust settled, Faith became visible, holding a wooden stake in each hand.

"You don't have protection from me," said Faith who then ran forward towards the other two vampires.

The two remaining vampires glanced briefly at each other. "The slayer!" they agreed before both turning and running.

But by now Faith was up to top speed. As the vampires ran Faith took off in a mighty leap and came down with a heavy kick to the head of each vampire, knocking them down. Faith's leap took her over the top of the falling vampires. She rolled as she landed and came up facing the two vampires as they rose to their feet.

The vampires themselves had recovered quickly, but not quickly enough. As they regained their feet they found the slayer driving wooden stakes into their hearts. Now there were no more vampires, just another two piles of dust.

The sound of clapping came from behind the three travellers. A young woman walked forward out of the darkness still clapping. "Very good," she said and stopped clapping. "I haven't seen a slayer in action before. I always thought it was just an old Tau'ri legend. I can see why the vampires all worry about you."

Faith stared at the newcomer. It couldn't be could it? The woman looked exactly like Glory. Do we have to fight her as well as the Goa'uld she wondered?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It was very impressive," said Teal'c. "The Jaffa kept coming through the Gate and they kept falling asleep because of the stasis spell set up by the witches."

"So how many Jaffa were there altogether?" asked General Hammond.

"Two hundred in all," said Teal'c. "It got to the stage where we had to carry them upstairs to get them out of the way and stop them piling up."

"And we have custody of all of them?" asked the General.

"Yes, the Sunnydale people didn't want to keep hold of them," said Teal'c. "They're not set up to take care of captives. But before they handed them over to us their witches woke up one of the Jaffa officers and used a magic truth spell to help question him. These Jaffa all serve Marduk and they came from his base ship orbiting Kallistien. Their loss will be a blow to him."

"The capture of two hundred Jaffa and the stopping of an invasion by the Goa'uld," said the General. "Pity we can't claim the credit, it would earn us a lot of brownie points with the senate committee."

"Brownie points?" queried Teal'c.

"It's just an expression," said the General. "It just means it'll make us look good, stand us in good stead for when we don't look so good."

"I will speak to the witches," said Teal'c. "I am sure they do not want their role in this to become known. I will ask them if they will agree to the SGC taking credit for the captures."

"Well at least we have custody of these Jaffa because of our policy of co-operating with the witches and their friends, rather than doing what the NID suggested and attacking them," said the General.

"It seems the NID are working with a group called Wolfram and Hart who are known to the witches," said Teal'c, "and are known to be behind many evil acts."

"I'll have them checked out," said the General. "Did the Jaffa know anything about the witches who went through the Gate earlier?"

"The Jaffa officer knew there had been an attack on Marduk's ship by witches but he did not know any details," replied Teal'c. "But at least he knew nothing of any captives. The other Jaffa are unlikely to know any more than that. But there was some other interesting information revealed. Using a truth spell certainly speeds up interrogation."

"But is it a reliable method of interrogation?" asked the General. "All this magic business is new to me and I don't want to fall into the trap of assuming it doesn't have any drawbacks. My general rule is, if something seems too good to be true then it probably isn't true. Sometimes an interrogator gets told just what he wants to hear. I don't think we should assume this magic business is infallible."

"Indeed, the witches did warn me their magic spell only reveals what the subject believes to be true," said Teal'c. "The Goa'uld have been known to allow the capture of somebody who has been primed with wrong information as a way of deceiving their enemies."

"So as always, we've got to be cautious as far as the Goa'uld are concerned," said the General. "And anyway Marduk will know by now he's lost these Jaffa together with any information they could reveal. With that in mind exactly what did you find out?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So what do we do if it turns out she's evil, an evil hell goddess like she was back on Earth," asked Paige.

"It doesn't matter whether she's good or evil, witch or goddess," said Prue. "We're just here to observe. We can't do anything to change things. We mustn't do anything to change things."

After meeting Daniel, Piper and Faith, Glory had explained that she had already met Prue and Paige. She had taken them to the local witch safe house on the outskirts of town where the two groups of time travellers had reunited. Now they were comparing notes.

"Change them any more you mean," muttered Piper. "So far Faith's score is four vampires and one man in a black coat. When we go back to the future we'll probably find it doesn't exist any more."

"So you'd rather I'd just stood there observing while those vamps killed you?" asked Faith. "I'll remember that next time."

"We don't know they would have killed us," replied Piper. "Glory says they work for the witches, that's why they had those protective amulets. She says they round up strangers and bring them in for questioning. They help in the fight against the Goa'uld."

"Glory says...Sounds like we're back in school," said Faith. "Look, I know vamps and I'm telling you they were set to feed. They might bring some people in for questioning to keep the witches happy but they get paid for doing it. They get paid with the blood of a few strangers who nobody will miss."

"You can't be sure...," began Piper.

"Look, what's done is done," said Daniel. "Can we concentrate on what happens next?"

"Before we talk about that, what about that guy in the black coat?" asked Faith. "How did he know Piper was a witch?"

"He's a Witchfinder," said Paige. "I asked Glory. Apparently there's this local religious sect who hate witches. Some of them can somehow tell a witch on sight. Nobody knows how, it seems to be some sort of inborn talent. They try to stir up the local people whenever they recognise a witch. Doesn't always work but it can be a lot of trouble when it does. The witches think they're stooges for the Goa'uld."

"As for what happens next, the big event seems to be this ritual tonight," said Prue. "All the witches from miles around will be taking part."

"What actually are they trying to do?" asked Faith.

"They're trying to concentrate as much magic power as possible into a vessel," replied Prue.

"What vessel?" asked Piper.

"And what will the vessel do when it's got all the power?" asked Daniel.

"The vessel is some sort of a Mystic Key, an ancient artefact going back to the days of the old Tau'ri sorcerers, or even earlier so I'm told," said Prue. "The witches intend to use it as a power source for when they attack the Goa'uld."

"Sort of like a super magic battery," suggested Paige.

"Something like that I suppose," said Prue. "What is it Faith?"

Faith was stood with her mouth open, struck by a sudden realisation. "Don't you guys remember what Willow told you about Glory, the Mystic Key and the magic monks?"


	22. Attack

**Chapter Twenty Two: Attack**

Willow had called a meeting of the 'Tau'ri' witches back at the hotel in order to discuss how to approach the attack on Marduk's spaceship. However most of the witches were otherwise occupied and it ended up as a meeting between Willow, Tara and Phoebe.

"Don't worry sweetie," said Tara to her partner. "I really don't mind. You're a witch, not a Whitelighter. You don't have to follow the same rules I do. One of the reasons for the restrictions I have to follow is so that humans do things for themselves rather than have everything determined by higher powers. It's part of the idea of free will."

"So that would be why the elders and Whitelighters didn't get rid of the Goa'uld when they were on Earth centuries ago," said Phoebe. "It was something that people had to do for themselves."

"Exactly," said Tara. "And anyway if the elders and Whitelighters took too high a profile then the major demonic powers would be able to get more involved as well. It doesn't always work well but there is something of a balance to all this."

"But you are coming?" replied Willow. "Coming through the portal to the spaceship? You're not going back to Earth like Jenny."

"You don't think I'd let you go without me do you?" said Tara. "Protecting you is one of my most important duties, especially when you decide to do something dangerous. Jenny had to go back because all her charges are back on Earth and she needs to check up on them. Some of my charges are still on Kallistien and Jenny will check on the others for me."

"Like Amy and Anya you mean," said Willow.

"Yes," said Tara. "And I've asked her to tell Dawn and everybody else back home we're alright."

"But you're not going to do any orbing to help with the attack," said Phoebe.

"That's right," replied Tara.

"I can make a portal to open aboard the ship," said Willow. "We'll all be going in that way. Once we get control of the Stargate on the ship we can bring some more troops through from the SGC."

"I won't be moving any troops around unless something demonic or supernatural turns up," said Tara. "I'll just be there to save lives, rescue people and so on. I'll do as much healing as I can, no matter what side the wounded person is on."

"OK, we know where you stand then," said Willow. "Now has anybody got any thoughts on how we deal with Marduk?"

"Shouldn't Cordy be here?" queried Phoebe. "Since this is a meeting of the so called Tau'ri witches."

"Wesley needs her help," said Tara. "He seems to have lost Eve."

"You mean the Wolfram and Hart woman?" asked Phoebe.

"Yes, he doesn't know if she's been snatched by Goa'uld agents or if she's up to something for herself," said Tara.

"She might still be working for Wolfram and Hart," suggested Willow.

"OK then, getting back to the agenda, we need to talk about the traps the Goa'uld have prepared for us," said Phoebe.

"There's an agenda?" said Tara.

"What traps?" asked Willow looking at Tara who shook her head.

"That's what we've got to figure out," said Phoebe. "I bet the Goa'uld have a few surprises waiting for us. They've got goodness knows what technology, they've got witches working for them and centuries of experience in fighting dirty. I bet they've figured out we're going to attack their space ship. We have to be ready to deal with whatever it is they've got waiting for us."

"Yes, we have to assume they know we're coming," agreed Tara. "Apart from anything else some of the witches working for the Goa'uld might be able to predict the future as well, just like Phoebe and Cordy."

"So we need some way of setting off the traps before we walk into them," said Willow thoughtfully. "Something to distract the defence. Maybe something we can use over and over again as we go through the ship. Like those special tanks they use to cross mine fields and set off the mines."

"Perhaps when Cordy gets back you two can put your heads together again and try to see what you can find out about what might happen in the future," suggested Tara. "Perhaps you guys can try for another of those combined prophecy visions like you did before."

"Yeah," said Willow. "If the Goa'uld have got all these traps prepared why haven't you guys had any warnings yet?"

"Most warnings come only a little ahead of time," said Phoebe. "The way I figure it, there are so many possible futures it's probably not possible to warn too far ahead of time. The Powers that Be might only be able to send a message when the particular event becomes pretty well certain, unless we do something to stop it."

"So we make our plans first," said Tara. "Then you try to get a reading to see if we should make any changes."

"If Cordy's back in time," said Phoebe. "Otherwise I'll see what I can do on my own."

"Well I've got one idea," said Willow. "A way we can set off at least some of the likely traps and at the same time provide a big distraction. It's to do with what happened to you guys before you came to Kallistien," she added to Phoebe.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A dark alley, late at night. A slight, black clad figure appears briefly out of the darkness and jumps onto a pipe running up from ground level to the roof of a nearby building. Quickly ascending the pipe the figure arrives on a window ledge high above. After a few moments working on the window lock the figure opens the window and enters the building.

As the first figure goes inside a second slight figure ascends the pipe, even more rapidly than the first. The second figure reaches the window ledge and waits by the open window. A third, larger figure now follows the other two but rather more slowly and laboriously. As this third intruder reaches the area immediately below the window ledge the waiting second figure lends a hand to pull the third climber up and into the room in one jerk.

"I thought I was in condition," gasped Wesley quietly as he stood up inside the room.

"You are, for a watcher," whispered Kennedy in an amused tone as she followed him into the room. "I don't think my original watcher would ever have been able to make a climb like that." As she said this Kennedy turned to watch Cordelia float through the open window, glowing wand in hand. "Show off," she said to the witch.

"Shhhh!" hissed Gwen from her position with her ear to the door of the room which the four of them had entered. "And shut the window!" she ordered quietly.

Wesley closed the window slowly, trying to avoid making any noise and then joined Gwen at the door. He made to open the door and take the lead but was stopped by Kennedy's hand on his shoulder. "Let the expert go first," she said looking towards Cordelia.

Cordelia opened the door and, closely followed by Wesley, led the way out of the office. They had entered via an upper storey window because Gwen had identified it as a weak spot in the security of the building, but they now found themselves heading downstairs to the lower levels. They finally reached the level of the entrance hall and continued down into the basement.

The building was like an old fashioned office building on Earth, with many small offices on each floor. The Kallistians hadn't yet taken to 'open plan'. From what they could see, the premises were deserted with no sound except the loud ticking of a large clock in the front foyer and the occasional creak of the stairs as they cautiously descended.

The four intruders had entered the offices of a local Kallistien legal firm: Lupus, Werther and Tier, or in other words the local HQ of Wolfram and Hart. The reason for the late night breaking and entering was the disappearance of Eve.

Wesley couldn't be sure of how long it had been since Eve disappeared but nobody had seen her since the morning of the previous day. Had he been back on Earth when Eve disappeared Wesley would immediately have suspected Wolfram and Hart. As he thought about it however he had realised that this firm was not restricted to Earth. There had been a reference to them in Pylea so they might also be active on Kallistien.

Surprisingly none of the local witches were aware of anything like Wolfram and Hart operating on their planet. This either meant they did not have branches on Kallistien or they operated with a much lower profile. The latter option turned out to be the truth. Wesley surmised that Wolfram and Hart had to operate under different rules in a society dominated by witches and magic. They probably operated under different rules everywhere they had a presence.

The local branch of Wolfram and Hart had been discovered by Cordelia. She did not have her wand with her when she had been brought to Kallistien but she now had a replacement. Like the original this was an ordinary piece of wood, cut and polished by Xander, which Cordelia used to focus her powers.

"Hey, maybe I should advertise as the 'Magic Wand Maker Extraordinary, by Appointment of the Witch of LA'," Xander had suggested on presenting the finished wand to Cordelia. Cordelia had bitten back the almost automatic cutting remark that came into her head, since she was now on good terms with Xander. She had thanked him with a kiss on the cheek. Sometimes it's a strain being on good terms with everybody, she thought. Being a bitch is so much more fun.

After reciting a short charm Cordelia had used her wand like a dowsing rod to follow the path taken by Eve. It had led her and Wesley from the hotel through the streets to the premises of the apparently innocent local law firm. They had returned with Kennedy and Gwen several hours after nightfall to make their entry.

Wesley had not asked Angel to become involved since it seemed obvious to everybody that he would shortly be joining Buffy and the others in the attack on the spaceship. Gwen had been a natural choice to ask to help with the break in. Kennedy had volunteered without being asked.

Wesley knew enough about slayers to know why Kennedy was glad to get away from Buffy. Kennedy had gone from being the Chosen One to being third string in the band. All things considered she had taken it well but she was much happier when she was engaged in separate projects apart from the other slayers, when she could once more be The Slayer rather than the junior slayer.

The attack when it came was nearly a surprise. Nearly because none of them felt safe on the premises of Wolfram and Hart, but they had started to relax in the belief that their entrance had not been detected. Cordelia's wand had led them down to the basement. They were crossing a large open area leading to a pair of high double doors when they were attacked from both sides at once.

Kennedy reacted first, her fast reflexes sending her low and rolling to the left into the legs of two large misshapen figures approaching from that direction. Both figures were knocked down and hit the ground heavily just as Kennedy bounced to her feet.

The attackers from the right were armed with local firearms but they were given no chance to use them by Cordelia. The gunmen looked as if they were preparing to fire but Cordelia gave them no chance to do so. She raised her wand and the gunmen found themselves holding sticks of celery instead of guns.

Meanwhile Kennedy was happy to find herself fighting two demons, the first she had met since coming to Kallistien. Now at last she could do some real slaying. Now she could really fight and not pull her punches.

One of the demons was of the classic red-skinned, horned, fanged variety. Kennedy had fought this sort a number of times before but she could never remember the outlandish names which watchers delighted in giving to all the various types of demon. It was a demon, it was evil and she took great pleasure in grabbing both horns and flipping it hard up against the wall behind her.

The second demon was slower in getting to his feet but he was also more massive, looking something like a pumped up version of a gorilla, but much uglier. Kennedy, making an instant decision about tactics went for the immediate kill on the basis that if she allowed something like that to get hold of her she would soon be in pieces. A flying kick to the throat crushed the windpipe of the creature and it collapsed, unable to breathe.

By now Wesley, Gwen and Cordelia had got to grips with the four gunmen, a fight that was surprisingly one-sided as none of the gunmen seemed to have any skills or training in hand to hand combat. Gwen found no need to use any of her electricity and Cordelia didn't use her wand again. Wesley took out the first gunman with a sucker punch whilst the man was still staring at the piece of celery in his hand. Assorted kicks and punches soon accounted for the other three.

Wesley, Cordelia and Gwen turned to see that Kennedy was still engaged with the red-horned demon. They had been exchanging blows for some time but Kennedy seemed to be in no hurry to finish off her opponent. After knocking him down for the third time she even waited for the demon to get to his feet before resuming her attack.

"Come on Ken, we don't have all day," said Gwen.

At this Kennedy smiled, decided she had had enough of a workout and drove a series of heavy blows into the torso of the demon. As the demon doubled over she knocked back its head with a head butt and finished it off by grabbing and twisting the head and breaking its neck.

As Kennedy stepped back from a job well done the body at her feet faded away. She turned quickly enough to see the same thing happen to the body of the other demon. As the group looked around them the bodies of the gunmen also disappeared.

"Don't say I never do anything for you," said Eve stepping out of the darkness ahead of them. "You look like you enjoyed that a great deal."

"Those people, those monsters, they were working for you?" asked Wesley. So she is back working for Wolfram and Hart he thought.

"There weren't any monsters, or any people," said Eve. "Don't you get it? It was all an illusion. It's part of the automatic defences of this place. You're meant to run away screaming. You did pretty well getting as far as the basement before setting it off."

"That wasn't an illusion," said Kennedy. "Those demons were too solid for that. Something stopped me when I kicked out or I'd have ended up against the wall."

"Well illusion is not exactly the right term," said Eve. "They're real enough I suppose while they're here but they're just temporary. They don't follow you if you run away."

"But they try to kill you if you don't," asked Wesley.

Eve shrugged. "This is Wolfram and Hart after all. Anyway I've deactivated it now. I could have done it sooner but I thought it was more fun to let you guys have a workout," she said. "Wes gets a bit grumpy unless he gets to punch somebody out every few days," she added to Cordelia.

"So you're back working for Wolfram and Hart then?" asked Cordelia.

"Officially yes," said Eve. "Officially I never left, remember?" she added pointedly to Wesley. "Don't forget, as far as Lilah's concerned I'm her inside man with Angel's people."

"You're walking a fine line," said Wesley, all his suspicions about Eve back at full alert.

"Perhaps," said Eve. "Anyway this isn't the right place to talk about all that. I need to show you something, something about how to defeat the Goa'uld."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

An empty room, an unoccupied storeroom on Marduk's spaceship HQ. A large vertical yellow circle winks into existence and a man jumps through. He quickly prowls around the room as if searching it and then goes back to the circle and looks through. A second man now comes through the circle into the room to join the first.

The two men say not a word to each other but now go over to the door. The first man tries to open the door but it is locked. Neither man makes any effort to force open the door. The first man places his hand flat on the door for a brief instant and then smoothly flows through the door to the corridor outside. Once there he is joined by the second man who passes through the door in the same way.

Three decks away an alarm goes off. A witch sitting cross-legged on the floor of a large room looks across to a Jaffa officer nearby and nods. The officer presses the button on the top right of the console in front of him and alarm signals are quietly transmitted to the whole ship. Jaffa, technicians and witches hurry to their pre-arranged action stations.

Meanwhile the two men in the corridor outside the storeroom head off down the corridor but in opposite directions. They still say nothing to each other and exchange no signals as if they already know exactly what to do. A few minutes later the first man turns the corner at the end of a corridor and comes face to face with a reception party waiting in ambush. A group of armed Jaffa fill the corridor.

As soon as the man appears the Jaffa open fire. They give no warning and make no effort to take the man prisoner. The man staggers back and falls down heavily onto his back. As he hits the deck his body shatters and breaks apart into hundreds of smaller components. Replicators!

The Replicators now scatter in all directions. Some head along the corridor towards the Jaffa. Others go back the way the original figure has come. Yet more enter nearby vents, climb the walls and squeeze under the doors leading into the corridor. The Jaffa now find themselves faced with Replicators all around them on the floor, the walls and the ceiling.

The Jaffa are now thoroughly alarmed and most of them open fire at the Replicators while the officer in charge reports back to the Control Centre. Zat fire and blasts from staff weapons only have a temporary affect on the Replicators. Those hit by minor energy blasts are knocked down but almost immediately get to their feet again and continue on their way. Some Replicators are shattered but quickly reform and are soon running about again. The Jaffa chase after the Replicators in all directions, firing their weapons.

The second man does not get much further in the opposite direction before meeting another Jaffa reception committee. The earlier scene is repeated and he too shatters into a horde of Replicators. Now here are many more Replicators swarming in all directions. Soon there are reports coming in to the ship's Control Center from many decks about Replicator infestations.

Meanwhile in a quite different room on a different deck another yellow portal comes into existence and figures start to come through in a steady stream. With so many alarms and messages coming into the Control Center via technology or the senses of the guarding witches one more alarm goes unnoticed.


	23. Battles Then and Now

**Chapter Twenty Three: Battles Then and Now**

It had taken most of the day for all of the witches to gather at the secret location in the woods a few miles from the town. They had quietly arrived in the area over the past few weeks. They had generally avoided going into the town in order to avoid notice by Goa'uld agents, including the Witchfinders.

By the time the ceremony was due to start there might have been several hundred witches present. There were also groups of armed men scattered in defensive positions in locations for miles around the central meeting point in order to provide a security cordon. At this stage in their history the Kallistians did not have firearms but some of them had captured Goa'uld weapons. The others had bows, swords and spears.

Daniel had said nothing, in line with the wish not to affect events but he wondered if the witches knew about the Goa'uld teleport technology, assuming it actually existed at this stage in their history. Although the numbers involved were very impressive it was surely impossible to keep such a large gathering a secret.

The sisters plus Faith and Daniel had arrived early along with Glory who still appeared to be a friendly, but powerful, local witch. She had vouched for them and gained them the status of observers despite queries from some of the other Kallistien witches as to why they were not lending their support to the action being taken against the Goa'uld.

Shortly after dusk all of the witches gathered in a great circle in a clearing. The ceremony was timed to coincide with the rising of a particular star group which was seen as the appropriate time for success. Faith and Daniel helped Prue and Piper climb into a large tree overlooking the ceremony so that they could see exactly what was happening. Paige simply orbed herself up into the branches.

"Everybody better make sure nobody can see us up here," said Daniel to the others. "Hide amongst the foliage."

"Why?" asked Faith. "They know we're up here."

"Yes they do but there might be some uninvited guests turning up," said Daniel. "There are so many people about I don't see this meeting staying a secret for long."

Finally everything seemed to be ready and everybody fell silent. Seven women, all presumably witches and including Glory, now walked into the circle. They were all wearing formal robes of white or grey. One of them carried a bowl and another held a sword upright. The bowl was placed onto a tripod that was already in the centre of the circle and the witch with the sword drove it into the ground alongside the bowl.

The seven witches now stood in a rough semicircle facing the bowl and sword and began to chant. As the chant continued all of the witches in the surrounding circle joined in.

"The Key is in the bowl," said Prue. "They're doing a spell to activate and empower it. The idea is to harness the mystic energy of the Key against the Goa'uld."

"So what exactly is the Key then?" Paige asked Prue. Prue had spent some time talking to Glory and the other senior witches before the ceremony. "What does it look like?"

"They wouldn't let me see it," said Prue. "I don't know what it looks like, just that it's an ancient mystic artefact."

"And it fits inside a bowl," said Piper sarcastically.

"And the sword?" asked Daniel.

"I don't know," said Prue. "Nobody said anything about a sword."

"So what do they do when they've empowered the Key?" asked Faith. "And did you find out if it's the same Key as...you know."

"Something I should know?" asked Daniel. The four women had talked about the Key before but they had been mysterious about it. From what he could gather they knew about another Key or the same Key but had fobbed him off when he had tried to find out more about what they knew.

"Not really," replied Prue. "It doesn't make any difference anyway."

"This wouldn't be the 'Key to Open Worlds' would it?" asked Daniel reluctant to be brushed off again. "It got a brief mention in one of the books I found in the witches' library."

"It might be I suppose," said Prue suddenly interested. "What did the book say?"

"It was mainly about closing and opening up travel to other worlds," said Daniel.

"Did the book say if it had been used against the Goa'uld?" asked Piper.

"No it didn't," said Daniel. "It was in a list of ancient Tau'ri artefacts. Next to the name it just said whereabouts unknown. It also said it had not been seen for many centuries. I found it difficult to take a lot of that stuff seriously." Daniel recalled to himself a number of other artefacts on the list: The Chalice of Eternal Youth, the bucket that never stayed empty, the tooth of the giant Slobomir. This was the sort of stuff you'd find in the Brothers Grimm or Hans Anderson stories.

"I wondered if it could be used to stop the Goa'uld coming to Kallistien," continued Daniel. "Perhaps a way to close the world to the Goa'uld, to lock them out so to speak, although it seemed to have more relevance to travel between different dimensions than to space travel."

"They may not be as different as you think," said Prue. "Faith came here through a magic portal and we came to the same place through a Stargate."

"Yes," said Paige. "Back on that Replicator world Colonel O'Neill or somebody said we could get home by spaceship. It seems we've got three ways of getting to the same place."

"But can they all be blocked off?" asked Piper.

"It seems they can if what the witches are doing kept the Goa'uld from coming back for many centuries," said Daniel. "But why did the protection run out?"

"Maybe something happened to change the Key," suggested Faith looking at Prue. Prue looked back thoughtfully but said nothing.

The chanting abruptly stopped and Glory walked forward. She pulled the sword out of the ground and carefully placed its tip on the edge of the bowl. The contents of the bowl began to glow with a pure green light. The glow grew and spread to the blade of the sword. Now the witches restarted their chanting but at a much faster tempo.

An explosion sounded from behind where the group were watching and then another from the opposite side of the clearing. Suddenly there were Jaffa arriving from all directions, firing their weapons and running into the circle. Witches began to fall and the chanting faltered then stopped.

"No!" screamed Glory who had not stopped her intense concentration on the sword and Key. "You must carry on! You can't stop now!"

Some of the witches took up the chant again but it was impossible. Some of the armed defenders were now contending with the attacking Jaffa and some witches were using magic against the Jaffa but witches were being killed and others began to flee.

By now Glory was surrounded by the green glow that came from the bowl and the sword. This attracted the attention of a number of the Goa'uld who now directed their fire at her and at the bowl.

At first nothing seemed to happen, Glory appeared to be unaffected by the fire. However more Jaffa continued to arrive and in default of other targets they added their fire to the weapons firing at Glory and the bowl.

The watchers in the tree held themselves motionless in the tree, largely concealed from sight by the leaves and the dark. None of them were used to simply being spectators and it came hard to have to watch people being killed and being able to do nothing about it. They had discussed this at great length once again before the start of the ceremony and they all resisted the urge to jump out of the tree and take part in the fight.

Prue was carefully watching Faith, well she was watching all of the others but Faith most of all since she thought Faith was the most likely to get involved but Faith continued to just watch. Suddenly Prue's attention was directed back to the scene in the clearing.

The fire of the Jaffa now at last seemed to have an affect, a dramatic affect as the green glow seemed to literally explode outwards from Glory and engulf all of the surrounding area.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's all in there," said Eve putting a large ancient book on the table in the middle of the room. "All you ever wanted to know about what really happened in ancient Kallistien."

"And you're just giving it to us free," said Wesley sceptically. "No strings attached. That's just like Wolfram and Hart, I don't think."

As he spoke Wesley recalled what Eve had said about Lilah soon after she joined them: "She wants to feed you false information." Maybe that's what this is, he thought. There will be a lot of truth in that book in order to disguise a few vital lies. The question is do I read it or is it safer to ignore it altogether. Even as he thought that Wesley knew he would have to read the book. Anything else was unthinkable. It was as if this whole scenario had been designed by somebody who knew him very well, which it probably had been he conceded.

Eve had refused to talk any further to Wesley and the others until they had all left the premises of the local Wolfram and Hart branch. "Somebody or something will be hearing or recording anything we say here," she explained. "We can't talk freely in a Wolfram and Hart building."

They had returned to the hotel where everybody was staying and she had brought the old book with her. Once there Eve insisted that Cordelia make magic wards to prevent anybody from watching or listening to them.

"OK, that's done," said Cordelia after finishing the wards. "Even scientific bugging devices won't work now. Now perhaps you'll tell us what this is all about." Either she's genuine thought Cordelia or this was all playacting because if she's still working for Wolfram and Hart nothing she tells us will be a secret to them.

"Can't somebody with stronger magic get round what you've done?" asked Kennedy.

"Yes they can," said Cordelia. "But if they do I'll know about it."

Eve now explained that she was still on their side and had simply gone to the local Wolfram and Hart office to find out what she could about how the Kallistians had gotten rid of the Goa'uld in ancient times. "Wolfram and Hart go back a long way in one form or another," said Eve. "We've, that's to say they've, got records back on Earth that you won't find anywhere else. The sort of records ancient historians would kill for. I thought it might be the same here and it is."

"And they let you just walk in and help yourself?" asked Cordelia, still at least as sceptical as Wesley. Wolfram and Hart are very definitely up to something here she thought, with or without Eve's cooperation.

"Why not?" asked Eve. "I'm still in good standing with them. As far as Lilah is concerned I'm still working for her. That's why I don't want her to hear anything that might make her think differently."

"And how do we know you're not still working for Lilah?" asked Wesley. "And why didn't you tell me what you were doing?"

"You people really are amateurs," said Eve. "I don't know how you've survived this far. You don't seem to be aware that the Goa'uld, Wolfram and Hart and who knows who else have agents in this city watching and listening. I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the first private conversation you've had since coming here. Never tell anybody something unless they need to know it and never tell them until they need to know it. Basic operating procedure."

Wesley glanced at Cordelia who said nothing. Both had the same thought. They were both glad that Eve had not been included in any of the planning that had been done as far as the attack on Marduk was concerned. They were also aware of the fact that unknown to her Eve was quite wrong about the lack of precautions taken to prevent evesdropping as far as the most important meetings were concerned.

Eve shrugged. "Anyway the book's there," she said. "Take it or leave it."

Wesley decided to open the book and made to pick it up but was forestalled by Gwen who grabbed his arm. "Wait a minute," she said. "It might be booby trapped. I've heard stories about things like that."

"Like what?" asked Kennedy looking at the book suspiciously. "You think it might blow up or something?"

Gwen shrugged. "Who knows," she said. "But everything I've ever heard about Wolfram and Hart says you never get anything free."

"Let me try something," said Cordelia who extended her wand until it touched the book.

Abruptly the book turned black, then dark blue and finally bright red before returning to the way it had been. Meanwhile Cordelia's wand had begun buzzing as if alive with electricity or another sort of power. The wand abruptly grew very hot and Cordelia threw it across the room where it continued to buzz and crackle.

Now the air around the fallen wand began to waver, as if from a heat source although no heat was apparent. As they watched, the exiles from Earth saw the air around the wand condense into a dark shape which gradually became more distinct eventually becoming recognisable as a human figure.

"Well, hello gang," said Lilah Morgan. "Pleased to see me?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You're sure they're not real?" asked Jack as he led the way along one of the corridors of the immense Goa'uld ship. "They haven't created another plague of the things by mistake?" More Replicators is one thing we can do without he thought.

Buffy stepped forward alongside Jack and waved her hand. It went right through the two Replicators that were climbing the wall of the corridor next to them. The Replicators were completely insubstantial although they looked and sounded exactly like the real thing.

"See," said Buffy. "Just pretend little monsters. They're the best sort. No blood or gore to get out of your clothes and hair."

"And no bodies to bury later," said Xander, "before anybody falls over them."

Jack nodded and glanced briefly back at Xander. You never could tell when these people were being serious he thought but he decided not to comment further. Talk's all very well, but let's see how they do when it comes to a real fight he said to himself. "There should be an elevator around here," he said, leading Buffy and Xander deeper into the spaceship.

Jack, Buffy and Xander formed one of the teams that had been infiltrated into the depths of Marduk's space HQ, taking advantage of the disruption caused by the apparent attack of the Replicators. Both Jack and Xander were disguised as Jaffa and Buffy was back in the technician's uniform she had obtained on her last visit to the spaceship.

Buffy and Xander followed Jack around the bend of the corridor to where there should be the door to an elevator but there was nothing there, only a blank wall. A few feet away was a stairwell leading up and down. A stairwell that looked decidedly odd aboard a spaceship and should not be there.

"This might be what Teal'c was talking about, " said Jack. "Some of those magic tricks." As he spoke he looked from the map in his hand, which said there was an elevator at their present location, to the blank wall in front of him and back again.

According to what Teal'c had found out from the captured Jaffa, with the help of the Sunnydale people, the defences of the spaceship had been improved by the witches. The witches working for Marduk had carried out spells to conceal the most important travel routes through the ship with a view to diverting any attackers into prearranged killing grounds. This had included changes to the guidance maps of the ship found at the intersections of the main corridors.

Teal's knew intimately the way a Goa'uld spaceship was actually laid out. He had provided maps and a briefing for everybody involved in the attack to allow them to find their way around and avoid the illusions and traps.

Buffy closed her eyes. Willow had told her that a first level illusion would not affect the sense of touch. She might therefore be able to feel the controls to the elevator. Yes, there they were. Buffy pressed the button and the three companions heard the familiar sound of an elevator door opening. But the elevator itself was still invisible and there still appeared to be a blank wall in front of them.

Buffy felt ahead of her and then stepped forward into the elevator. To Jack and Xander it looked like she walked through a solid wall. Hands out in front of them they followed her into the elevator.

Buffy pressed the appropriate button and the elevator began to ascend. It had to go up ten levels to reach the Control Center which was their target but the team would get out two levels before this to avoid the reception committee that might be waiting at the elevator exit on the top level. They intended to take a different route to travel the final two levels to their objective.

But the elevator didn't get as far as the level of the Control Center. Three and a half levels above the starting point it suddenly stopped. Everybody looked at one another.

"There's a hatch up there," said Buffy pointing to the ceiling. "How about we try that?"

"It'll be a bit awkward getting us all up there," said Jack. But if I boost Xander up he began thinking...

Buffy's suddenly leapt upwards and punched out the hatch cover in the ceiling of the elevator. As she did so she caught hold of the side of the hatch with her other hand and stopped herself from coming back down again. Now using both hands she quickly pulled herself through the hatch and onto the roof of the elevator. It was an impressive gymnastic display.

"Well are you coming or do you want to stay where you are?" called Buffy from above as she looked down into the elevator. She knelt down and put down her hand to help Xander up.

But at that moment the elevator jerked back into motion. The jerk caught Buffy off balance and she fell through the hatch and was caught by Xander who put her back on her feet.

"Maybe the hatch wasn't such a good idea after all," said Jack as the elevator continued upwards. "I suggest we stick to the original plan for the time being."

However things were still not going according to plan because the elevator went straight past its programmed stopping point and continued on towards the top level. Buffy briefly looked back up to the still open hatch. She could jump right up through there but neither Jack nor Xander would have time to climb through before they...

The elevator reached the top floor and the door opened. There in front of them was the expected reception committee. An armed Jaffa reception committee. All weapons were pointed into the elevator and as soon as it opened they all fired.


	24. A Key Event

**Chapter Twenty Four: A Key Event**

Cutting air to the areas occupied by the invaders was such an obvious move for the Goa'uld to take that the invaders had prepared for it. Everybody wore breathing apparatus ready for immediate use and had been given some instruction by the SG people in how to use it. Everybody that is except Angel and Drusilla.

"We don't need air to breathe," Angel had explained. "In fact we don't breathe at all."

Sam still didn't understand how that could possibly be true. Not unless Angel was some sort of a robot or android. Perhaps that was it? Angel and the other alleged vampires might really be some sort of machine, an artificial...

Sam's train of thought was interrupted by the sound of firing. The firing of Jaffa energy weapons and from not very far away. There shouldn't be any other invaders in the vicinity so perhaps the Jaffa were wasting their time blazing away at the fake Replicators.

"In here!" said Angel grabbing hold of Sam's hand. He forced open the nearest door and pulled Sam inside the room with him. He immediately shut the door and stood with his ear to the door to listen for people passing by.

"Jaffa," said Angel quietly to the watching Sam. "I heard them coming. We'll carry on once they've gone by."

Robot hearing as well thought Sam? And how does he speak if he doesn't pass breath across his vocal cords? Well his hand didn't feel like a robot thought Sam, although some robots hands don't. But it didn't feel quite human either she thought, much too cold. Shut up Samantha Carter, she told herself. Concentrate on what we're doing or we'll never get it done.

Anyway who arranged these groups she thought. I should be with Jack and this guy should be with Buffy. She had seen Buffy and Angel together and those guys obviously had some sort of a history. She had asked Phoebe about it to which Phoebe's response was a grin and near certain confirmation with the remark "What do you think?"

But Sam knew why the groups had been arranged in this way. It was her own fault. She had suggested that somebody from the SGC military be included in each group and the others had agreed. They had the most experience in dealing with the Goa'uld and their Jaffa. The members of SG-1 had been on Goa'uld ships before.

Angel and Sam, like Jack and Buffy, were disguised as a Jaffa and a technician but they had decided to avoid meeting any of Marduk's people as far as possible. Like Jack, Buffy and Xander they were heading for the Control Centre, otherwise known as the bridge of the ship. They were taking a different route in order to maximise the chances of somebody making it.

As all was now quiet outside the room Angel led the way outside and along the otherwise empty corridor. A few minutes later they reached their first objective, a transport point. A place for transporting personnel via the Goa'uld teleportation rings.

The transport controls were of course defended by a Jaffa unit, a unit of four men. As Angel and Sam walked towards the transport point the rings came to life and five more armed Jaffa arrived to take part in the battle. Angel and Sam stepped aside to allow them to pass by in their usual tramping style of march, on their way down the corridor.

The newly arrived Jaffa ignored Angel and Sam but not so the unit guarding the transport point. As the two Earth people walked forward they found the weapons of all four Jaffa pointed directly at them.

"Drop your weapons!" ordered the Jaffa in command of the unit. "I don't recognise you two. You're not supposed to be here. Who are you?"

Angel and Sam laid down their weapons but Angel closed the gap between himself and the Jaffa.

"We're spies," said Angel, "spies for the Lord Marduk. We've come to report to him about the attack of the Kallistians and what they're planning to do. We have to see him urgently, we don't have much time."

"I have the ear of Lord Marduk," said the Jaffa officer suspiciously. "And I don't know about any spies. You'd better tell me everything. I'll report it to him."

"Not good enough," replied Angel. "There are traitors on board. We need to speak to Lord Marduk ourselves. We can't risk any of the traitors finding out what we know. Our orders are to trust nobody."

At that moment an alarm sounded from the control panel of the transport control point and from the small communicators that the Jaffa had with them. The alarm consisted of a rapid series of beeps. "Grab hold," said the Jaffa commander. "This is it."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Dialling up now," said Sergeant Harriman through the PA as he looked at General Hammond down below in the Gate room. He also glanced at Phoebe Halliwell who stood next to the General and wondered if it really was possible for the witch to do what she was attempting.

How do these witches really operate wondered the sergeant. If this works the General will want us all to learn to do magic he thought. Hah! We'll need our own magic school, our own Hogwarts.

Down below Phoebe had begun her spell. Of necessity the Gate room was full of soldiers ready to deal with any threat coming through the Gate so she felt a little self conscious about doing a magic spell in such company. But there really was no alternative because she had to be close to the Gate and the soldiers had to be there.

At least most of these guys have seen enough strange things that one more might not be that memorable she thought. They must be good at keeping their mouths shut or the Stargate programme would be all over the news or at least all over the web by now.

Nevertheless Phoebe hoped that the soldiers thought she was some sort of visitor from an alien planet with strange religious beliefs or some such. To encourage that idea Phoebe had not spoken to anybody in the Gate room apart from the General and was dressed like a Kallistien witch, with a hood shading her face. That way the soldiers might not keep a good memory of what she looked like. Phoebe and her sisters really didn't want to become famous on Earth because they knew what that could lead to.

The dial up was continuing. "Chevron 6 encoded," declared Sergeant Harriman.

This was Phoebe's cue. She started the last part of her chant and walked up the ramp. She finished the chant and threw her magic potion over the Stargate itself before quickly jumping off the ramp to one side to avoid being engulfed by the incoming wormhole connection.

"Chevron 7 locked," called Sergeant Harriman and the wave washed over the ramp in the usual way. This time however things were a little different from normal because the connection was accompanied by a brief but violent vibration of the whole Gate. After a few seconds the Gate settled down with the usual watery curtain in place.

"Did you cause that vibration?" asked the General, looking at Phoebe.

"Probably," said Phoebe shrugging. "But the spell seems to have worked. We seem to have made the connection."

"Closing the Iris," announced Sergeant Harriman and the Iris closed as previously arranged.

The General turned away from Phoebe and walked over to Colonel Marker who was in command of the troops waiting to go through the Gate. The Colonel was stood at the back of the room with two of his team behind the troops on duty to guard the SGC.

"Are your guys all ready to go?" asked the General. "We could receive the OK signal at any moment."

"Everybody's ready Sir," replied the Colonel. "All equipment and weapons checked, including bayonets. Everybody did extra bayonet practice this morning since we might not be able to rely on our guns. And everybody will have their breathing masks on when they go through, just in case."

"Good," said the General who then turned and went back over to Phoebe. General Hammond had checked on all this before but it was best not to take anything for granted he thought.

"Have you been told there's a limit to how long we can keep the connection open?" said the General to Phoebe. "We should receive the OK to go through long before that but just in case I don't suppose your erm, magic spell will alter that?"

Phoebe shrugged again. "No idea," she replied. We just might find out. But I'm ready to do the counter spell and break the connection if it's a problem. Is there any reason why we couldn't reconnect after the connection time expires?"

"No," said the General. "Not in normal circumstances, no. Not unless the Gate at the other end is disabled somehow." And just so long as we don't break the Stargate with all this magical messing around he thought.

"I'll mix a bit more of my potion in case I have to do a repeat," said Phoebe picking up her bag of ingredients.

Phoebe had been given the dial up address of the Stargate, which was on board Marduk's space HQ, by Willow. That was the address just dialled by Sergeant Harriman. The plan was to keep a connection open to Marduk's Stargate for as long as possible in order to stop Marduk from using the Gate either to bring in reinforcements to fight against the attack that had just been launched against him, or as a way of escape.

As part of the attack on the space HQ, an attempt was being made to take control of Marduk's Gate at the other end. If this was successful a message would be sent through the Gate and the troops ready at the SGC would go through to join the fighting. Until that message was received the connection would be maintained but the Iris would remain closed.

The General had thought about sending Colonel Marker and his troops through as soon as a connection was established but had been persuaded not to do so. The witches thought there was a way to take control of Marduk's Gate at the other end without too many casualties on either side. A force direct from the SGC coming through the Gate with all guns blazing might mess up that plan. In any event as Phoebe pointed out:

"Marduk's expecting an attack. He knows we have his Gate address. You can't be sure he doesn't have something like your Iris set up by now," she had said. The General of course had already considered this.

The General had explained about the use of the robot probes to avoid risks such as that but had agreed that using a robot probe in the current circumstances was not appropriate. It could well be destroyed and would take too long.

Phoebe's role was to use magic to force a connection with Marduk's Gate, even if it was currently locked onto another location. In addition the magic was intended to lock the connection and prevent Marduk's people from breaking the link to the SGC Stargate. All the time the connection was maintained Marduk's Gate would remain effectively useless to him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Teal'c and Drusilla arrived on the hanger deck under the cover of darkness. They had travelled to the spaceship along with the others but had now transferred to the hanger deck by way of a secondary portal that Willow had opened for them. Willow remained with Tara back at the centre of the area now held by the attacking force.

As well as opening a portal to the hanger deck Willow had arranged for a brief blackout to cover the arrival. Teal'c and Drusilla were accompanied by a small unit of Kallistien soldiers and a few US troops.

The hanger deck was an obvious target for an attack by the Kallistians and their allies so it was well defended but Teal'c, Drusilla and their companions were at first mainly concerned to hide themselves in the depths and darkness of the hanger deck and bide their time. They had deliberately been sent through a portal away from the immediate area of the Gate in the hope that their arrival would not be noticed.

Everybody hunkered down behind shuttles, piles of equipment or anything else suitable. They were all concealed before the brief darkness ended. The extra alertness of the Jaffa present around the Gate because of the black out now began to settle down.

Teal'c gave a brief curious look at his strange companion when he thought she was not looking, one of several in the past few minutes. He had taken the opportunity to talk to Drusilla during the short wait before going though the portal although he had had some difficulty in understanding her strange accent until he managed to 'tune in' to it.

From what Drusilla said anybody, well anybody human, could become a vampire and she had once been fully human. But according to Drusilla becoming a soulless vampire was a curse, not a blessing. Drusilla had explained about the nature of vampires and how they sustained themselves by feeding on people.

Teal'c was beginning to wonder if some of the old tales told to him when he was a child might have more truth to them than he thought. O'Neill and his team had not known the truth about vampires on Earth so it was possible that such creatures existed unrecognised on other human worlds as well. They seemed to have a way of concealing themselves from public notice. Or perhaps they just benefited from a general human reluctance to accept that they really existed.

Teal'c broke off from his musings to concentrate on the task in hand. He made a mental note to look into this in more detail at a later time. If there were vampires preying on humans on the Jaffa worlds then something needed to be done about it.

The hanger deck still housed Marduk's Stargate which had been restored to full working order some time before by the witches working for the Goa'uld. The witches, after much effort had dissolved the shut down spell applied by Willow and Tara.

As the attackers remained in hiding and watched the operation of the Gate they saw Jaffa troops come through it to join in the fighting elsewhere on the ship. The latest group had just cleared the Gate ramp when it jumped, literally jumped two feet up in the air and down again with a loud crash.

In the silence that followed, the sound of a new wormhole connection was the only sound to be heard. The new wave of the new connection washed out in the usual way causing a great deal of consternation in the watching Jaffa. Something remarkable and totally unplanned had happed, as least as far as they were concerned.

The event was not unexpected as far as those watching were concerned but it was not what they were waiting for to launch their attack so they continued to watch, now doubly secure in their hiding places because all of the Jaffa and technicians present were totally concentrating on the Gate.

"What happened!" demanded the Jaffa commander in a loud voice. "What's going on?"

"It jumped," replied the chief technician. "It just...

"I saw that," said the Jaffa commander, evidently very annoyed. "We all saw that."

"No," said the technician. "I don't mean that. I mean the connection, the wormhole. It just jumped to another destination, another Gate."

"Isn't that impossible?" asked the Jaffa commander.

"Yes," said the technician. "Well, it should be. I don't understand it."

"So where's it connected to now?" asked another Jaffa.

"Earth," replied the technician. "Not our Gate on Earth, the Gate used by the Earth people."

"Why would they..." began the Jaffa commander but he didn't finish because the moment the watchers had been waiting for had arrived and they launched their attack.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Daniel Jackson opened his eyes and looked up. He saw the sky above through the gaps in the canopy of trees, Kallistien trees. He slowly remembered where he was and then tried to recall what had happened. There was some sort of an explosion he thought, that green glowing thing in the bowl had seemed to explode.

"Are you going to lie there all day," asked a voice from somewhere above and behind him, a woman's voice. A voice he recognised as the voice of Glory.

Daniel sat up and looked around. His head felt delicate, as if it was on the edge of a headache, as if he had received some sort blow to the head, which he probably had he thought. He was indeed still in the forest. The only other person visible, alive or dead, was Glory who was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree nearby.

"What happened?" asked Daniel. "Did something go wrong?"

"Oh no," said Glory sarcastically. "I planned for the Goa'uld to mess everything up, to turn up unexpectedly and start killing all my friends."

"I'm sorry," said Daniel who found that standing up provoked a real headache. "Do you know..."

"...what happened to your friends?" finished Glory. "No idea. In fact I couldn't care less."

"Where are we?" asked Daniel. "I saw a lot of Jaffa and a lot of people being killed..."

"While you did precisely nothing," said Glory. "You and your friends just sat there and watched. Thanks for nothing."

"You know why we couldn't..." said Daniel.

"I know what you said," replied Glory. "I also know I was betrayed and now your witch friends are nowhere to be found. How very convenient."

"That Key thing gave off a lot of energy," said Daniel. "That would have shown up on the Goa'uld instruments big time. They may have just sent in an armed force to check it out on general principles. There might not have been any betrayal at all."

"You know all about Goa'uld instruments do you?" asked Glory glaring at Daniel. "What else do you know about them?"

"You know I can't do anything that might change the timeline," said Daniel. "That includes giving out information. That especially includes giving out information."

"So if your friends have been captured by the Goa'uld you're going to do nothing about it?" asked Glory.

"You think they might have been captured?" asked Daniel. "How did we escape? Where are we?"

"The ceremony was meant to build up energy using the Key as a focus," said Glory. "The energy was meant to concentrate in the sword. The sword would then be powerful enough to destroy any Goa'uld fortress or bring down any of their flying machines or any of the machines they use to travel to other worlds."

"But it went wrong?" asked Daniel.

"You know it went wrong. We were attacked. The ceremony was disrupted," said Glory who bent down and picked up the sword. The sword was broken. Only a short fractured piece of metal still being attached to the hilt. "The sword is useless," she added and tossed it away.

Daniel said nothing but continued to wait for the answer to his question.

"We escaped because some of the energy entered me," said Glory. "I was able to teleport over here. I saw you fall out of your tree so I took you with me."

"What happened to the Key?" asked Daniel at the same time thinking that he didn't remember falling. His last memory was watching from his arboreal perch as the Jaffa attacked.

"Don't worry about the Key," said Glory. "That's my business and not something I'm gonna discuss with you."


	25. Fighting with the Slayer

**Chapter Twenty Five: Fighting with the Slayer**

The image of Lilah Morgan was just that, an image. Lilah wasn't there in the room with them, in fact she wasn't directly in contact with them at all. For all they knew she was still back on Earth. The image was some sort of a recorded message which had perhaps been primed to go off at a certain point after the book had been in contact with or near to certain people.

As Cordelia figured it out later the message might well have been intended to affect the first person to open the book and make them seem to act as Lilah's voice. A trivial display of magic power but quite impressive and typical of Lilah. As it was, the recorded image of Lilah operated perfectly well on its own after it had been sparked off by contact between Cordelia's wand and the book.

"Well hello gang," said Lilah to start the message. "Pleased to see me? I knew you'd turn up at the local Wolfram and Hart office sooner or later. Congratulations on doing so much to help support the Wolfram and Hart agenda. The book you've got there will be a big help to you in stopping the Goa'uld. It gives details of how they the Kallistians stopped them last time."

"Yes I know you don't trust me Cordy, I wouldn't want it any other way. But you can trust this. Wolfram and Hart don't want the Goa'uld back on Earth and we don't want them to have access to Kallistien magic. We don't want any Goa'uld to have an army of witches because it'll be just as much bad news for us as for you. We helped get rid of the Goa'uld before and we're quite prepared to do it again."

"Kallistien can be sealed off, like it was before and the Goa'uld kept away from both Kallistien and Earth. You don't have to take my word for it. Just read it in the book and cross check the details in the Kallistien witches' library. Everything checks out. All you need is the right tools and the right opportunity and I'm sure all you fighters for truth and justice can sort that out. I'd give you my best wishes but I'm sure you don't want them, bye." At that point the message ended and the image of a smirking Lilah faded away.

"Beware Greeks bearing gifts," quoted Wesley. "Especially beware Wolfram and Hart bearing gifts. I'm tempted to burn that book without reading it."

"But you won't, will you," said Eve. "You know you won't. You can't take the chance that this is exactly what we need to defeat the Goa'uld."

"Was that holographic technology?" asked Gwen. "Or was it some sort of magic spell?"

"Probably both," said Eve. "Wolfram and Hart use a lot of magic back on Earth which is mainly a technology world. They tend to use more technology on worlds like this. It overawes the natives either way."

"Whatever gives them an edge," said Kennedy. "What did she mean by supporting the Wolfram and Hart agenda?"

"She's just trying to mess with our minds," said Wesley. "Wolfram and Hart always try to pretend that whatever you do, you're just playing into their hands. It just a way to keep us off balance. Ignore it."

"Yeah, but you believe her don't you when she says the secrets of the universe are in her book? Burnt it, that's what I say. Don't mess with it, just burnt it, burn it now." said Kennedy.

"You are going to read the book aren't you?" said Cordelia to Wesley. "Even though you know it's exactly what she wants you to do. She really knows what buttons to press with you."

"That may be so but there is a certain logic in what she says," replied Wesley, "that Wolfram and Hart don't want the Goa'uld back on Earth and they don't want the Goa'uld to have access to magic."

"Of course," agreed Cordelia. "There's always 'a certain logic in what she says.' But she's always up to something else as well, several somethings probably and none of them good news for us."

"Yes, of course she is," said Wesley walking forward and picking up the book. "But first let's see what it says in the book."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So why have you changed your mind?" asked Colonel Maybourne. "Up until now you didn't want anything to do with the Sunnydale people. Why aren't you scared of them any more?"

Lilah Morgan shrugged. "Circumstances change," she said. "Anyway I wasn't scared of them. This is all just business."

Oh yeah thought Maybourne, and I'm a magic pixie. What exactly is your business Miss Lilah Morgan? Lilah had turned up unannounced in Maybourne's office. An office she had no business knowing about.

"You mean circumstances have changed now you know Willow's gone to Kallistien. That's why you've changed your mind," replied Maybourne. "You know, I get why nobody trusts you," he continued. "You're about as reliable as the weather, well the weather anywhere but California. Just don't expect me to jump whenever it's convenient for you. I'm not interested in whatever feud you've got going on with Angel and his friends."

"It's not a matter of trust," said Lilah. "Never rely on trust, it'll let you down every time. No, it's a matter of common self-interest. You're still getting nowhere. Work with me. You'll get what you want and be the hero of the hour and I'll get what I want at the same time."

"What do you think I want? asked Maybourne. "And what exactly is it you want?"

"Well I want Willow, Angel and all their friends to stay where they are now, permanently, unable to get back from Kallistien. That way they stay out of my hair," said Lilah.

"And this should concern me because..." asked Maybourne.

"Oh I don't know," said Lilah. "If we succeed in blocking the way back from Kallistien I don't think you'll be too unhappy if SG-1 are trapped over there as well. And if everything works out we'll have a way of stopping the Goa'uld from ever returning to Earth. I'll be happy for you to claim all the credit for that. Now tell me you're not interested."

"Keep talking," said Maybourne.

"Well first of all there's a certain Key player in all this we need to contact," began Lilah.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So far so good thought Willow. Whatever surprises the Goa'uld had planned with their technology and their witches they hadn't been able to stop the attack on the space HQ. The use of the fake Replicators seemed to have caused a major disruption to the defence, just as planned. By now the little bugs should have penetrated every corner of the ship. I'll just let them fade away as the spell gets older she thought. They've served their purpose.

Giles had come through the portal along with Willow and Tara and the main assault teams. Like the witches he was happy with the way things had gone so far but also like them he had some misgivings. "Nothing so far from the witches working for the Goa'uld," he said. "They must be up to something."

At the moment Willow, with Tara alongside, was at the centre of a holding operation. Willow was directing the magical side of things. Tara was keeping an eye on Willow and was ready to help with any healing that needed to be done. The invaders who had come through the magic portal now held two of the lower decks and had set up a defensive perimeter. Earth troops were fighting alongside Kallistien soldiers to try to take control of more and more of the ship.

Two Kallistien witch covens had by now come through the portal. One was scattered amongst the troops and was helping with the fighting. The other was with Willow and Tara and about to join in the next major part of the attack plan.

All preparations completed the witches started their spell. This was an important part of the overall plan, and one that Willow, Tara and Giles had insisted upon. As the spell was completed a wave of change spread out from the coven of witches. They had carried out a non-violence spell. A spell like the one which was in force at the Slayer HQ in Sunnydale and elsewhere. A spell that prevented the operation of anything but the most basic of weapons such as bows and arrows, clubs and knives.

As it happened, none of the attackers had brought bows and arrows as the intention was not to kill but to take control of the spaceship, although knives were carried and all rifles were fitted with bayonets. Tara had felt able to take part in the spell because it was designed to save life. Killing would be a last resort as the attacking force was recruited as far as possible from those who had skill in unarmed combat and their prime aim was to disable and capture their opponents. This of course would not be easy when they came up against experienced Jaffa.

Shortly after the completion of the non-violence spell the enemy struck back. Gravity on the entire ship was cut and everybody and everything not secured floated about weightless. After a short pause gravity was restored but in the opposite direction. Everybody that had been floating free now plummeted towards what had been the ceiling.

Willow would have been amongst the injured had she not been next to Tara. The two women grabbed each other as gravity disappeared and Tara orbed as soon as it was restored. They ended up with a soft landing on the ceiling.

"Whoa," said Willow. "Thanks for that. That was..."

"Can't stop," said Tara, "I've got a lot of healing to do." With that she scurried over to Giles and healed his broken shin bone before passing on to the nearest groaning witch, one of several in the immediate vicinity who were injured.

"Sweetie," called Willow. "As soon as you've dealt with the most serious cases around here can you help the fighters around the defensive perimeter. A lot of them will be casualties too and if the Jaffa break though we might all be killed."

"Will do," replied Tara just before she orbed away. "And you be careful," she added. "They might flip the gravity back the other way again, or sideways I suppose."

"Not if I have any say in it," muttered Willow. Even so she secured herself in a corner next to some solid looking pipe-work that she could grab hold of if necessary to stop her from falling if there was another flip. She then began to concentrate on re-establishing the magical connections to the spaceship controls that she had formed when she had last been aboard.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the elevator doors opened, the waiting Jaffa fired and at the same time Buffy and Xander with their Zat weapons and Jack with his gun fired as well. To the surprise of both parties nothing happened, that is to say none of the weapons worked. The elevator had arrived just after the non-violence spell had reached that part of the space HQ.

The non-violence spell was deliberately composed to apply only to modern weaponry and not to hand to hand combat. It was not a complete surprise to the occupants of the elevator because it was part of the plan of attack that such a spell would be imposed on the spaceship as soon as possible after the attackers became established on board. Buffy, Jack and Xander were therefore the first to realise what had happened and to react.

Buffy threw her Zat gun at one enemy and without waiting to watch it bounce off the head of the Jaffa in front of her she leapt forward to start the fight. Kicking and punching, leaping and dodging she knocked down or pushed aside four more of her opponents almost at once. Jack and Xander were quick to join in.

Xander, experienced at fighting alongside Buffy stayed close to her, finishing off those who were stunned or distracted, covering her back and being careful not to get himself isolated. As on so many other occasions the Slayer and her friend were outnumbered. As usual the way to deal with this was to keep the enemy off balance, to keep moving, to keep attacking.

The Jaffa were well trained and experienced but in a confined space they could not all join the fight at once. Buffy had faced many combats in the confined spaces of crypts and sewers. She cannoned the bodies of her opponents into Jaffa who were still standing and took advantage of the inability of the Jaffa to come at her more than one or two at a time. The numbers opposing her were rapidly whittled down.

Jack had pretty well accepted that there was something different about Faith, that somehow she was much faster and stronger than the average girl although he reserved judgement about whether it had anything to do with the Slayer legend that Daniel had read about.

Jack hadn't really thought about Buffy and Xander. He had assumed that they were experienced, well trained, but 'normal' human beings who worked with the witches. He had however noticed that many of the others deferred to Buffy who seemed to be accepted as the leader, even by Giles, Angel and Willow. Buffy was clearly at the top of their rather informal chain of command.

Now Jack realised that Buffy was in no way a normal human being. Xander did not seem to exhibit any special powers, but Buffy certainly did. What she was doing was beyond the scope of even the best of trained fighters. Well, outside of Kung Fu movies he thought. Now Faith and Buffy can't both be the so called Chosen One he thought. I wonder if their witch friends have hyped them up in some way.

But these were fleeting thoughts because Jack was an experienced fighter himself. His thoughts and observations did not take place with him stood about spectating. He reacted as quickly as Xander and ploughed into the opposition, gun flailing to knock down the enemy, most of whom wasted vital seconds trying to get their weapons to work.

Jack now used his gun to deliver blows calculated to knock down his opponents and to deflect their blows. His first opponent went down quickly, still looking at his now useless weapon. Jack then found himself dealing with a very robust Jaffa who, after an exchange of blows tried to squeeze the life out of him by grabbing him by the throat.

The Jaffa however, had made a foolish move against an experienced and well trained enemy. Jack swept his hands upwards to dislodge the arms of the Jaffa and delivered a crippling blow to the lower regions with his knee. He then looked around for more enemies but found none still standing.

Where did they all go thought Jack as he counted the fallen bodies. There were no less than twelve of them lying unconscious around the room and he knew he had only taken down two himself. Two Jaffa was a pretty good score normally but in this company? He glanced at Xander who was being helped to his feet by Buffy. Xander had clearly taken a few hits but Buffy looked as if she'd just put her make up on.

At that moment the opposition executed the gravity flip and everybody and everything floated about weightless. Jack realised the danger immediately.

"Grab hold of something, people!" he ordered. "The gravity will be back in a minute, maybe stronger than before."

It wasn't stronger but it was reversed and it did no good to the unconscious Jaffa who were slammed down towards what had been the ceiling. The three spaceship invaders all managed to avoid injury. Jack, as he floated weightless managed to grab hold of the side of an open doorway leading into the next room and was able to lower himself to the new floor without difficulty.

Buffy grabbed Xander as they were close together. When the gravity returned she twisted under him and landed on her feet, with Xander in her arms, a feat of strength and agility that did not go unnoticed by Jack.

"Let's get to the control room before they pull any more tricks," said Buffy who snatched up a Zat gun before breaking into a run towards where Teal'c had informed them the main control room should be. She kept a hold of Xander's hand so that she could help him if the gravity trick was pulled again.

Jack swept up his gun and followed behind without making any comment. She's definitely used to giving orders he thought as he ran to catch up.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"She just took him?" asked Prue. "Why?"

"And why him?" added Paige.

Faith shrugged. "Perhaps she grabbed Daniel because he's the one who isn't a slayer and isn't a witch. She might think he'll be easier to control or easier to get information out of."

The three witch sisters and Faith were walking around the area where the witch ceremony had taken place some hours before. The Jaffa or somebody else had taken everything away, including the dead bodies. There was no sign of Glory or Daniel nor of the bowl with the Key.

Paige had orbed Prue and Piper away soon after the fighting started and just after the big flash of green light from the bowl containing the key. When Paige had returned for Faith and Daniel she only found Faith. Faith had landed on the ground and had been wondering whether to try to pursue Glory when Paige had returned and orbed her away. There had been no time then for conversation, not with a battle going on around them.

The four women had hidden deeper in the woods and waited for the fighting to stop. After they were sure that the Jaffa and everybody else had left they had returned to the scene to try to find out what had happened and to try to find Daniel.

"Let me get this straight, she jumped twenty feet into the air and knocked Daniel unconscious, knocked him out of the tree. She then ran off carrying him," said Piper. "What is she, superwoman?"

"I don't think Daniel knew what hit him," said Faith. "He was looking the other way. She just moved so quickly. She was out of sight by the time I hit the ground. I've never seen anybody move that fast. Thankfully most of the Jaffa were still stunned from the big green flash so nobody fired at me."

"I remember watching you and Glory take part in that combat challenge in the Hellmouth," said Prue. "Seems to me as if this Glory is now more like that Glory but a lot faster, maybe stronger as well."

"You think that green energy explosion or whatever has changed her into a Hell God?" asked Faith. "That could be really bad news. I don't think she was at full power back on Earth. From what Giles said she was much stronger when she was back in her own Hell world."

"If it didn't totally change her, I bet it pushed her a long way down that path," said Prue.

"So we've got to stop her," said Piper. "And get Daniel back."

"We've certainly got to get Daniel back but stopping her might be a problem," said Prue.

"She took a lot of stopping back in Sunnydale from what I was told," said Faith. "Even when she didn't have all of her power."

"I don't mean that," said Prue. "Hasn't it occurred to you guys that it might be Glory, Glory as a Hellgod, who got rid of the Goa'uld back in the past, back where we are now?"

"Yeah, but if it was, then who got rid of Glory?" asked Piper.

"And what about the Key?" asked Faith. "What happened to it? Is it alright? If this is the same Key, Buffy will kill me if anything goes wrong."


	26. Trust and Distrust

**Chapter Twenty Six: Trust and Distrust**

Angel and Sam imitated the Jaffa and took hold of the nearest fixed objects in order to secure themselves. They were not surprised by the sudden loss of gravity because this was one of the possibilities discussed before the attack was launched. What was unexpected was the rapid reversal of gravity, but both Angel and Sam were sufficiently secure to land safely on the ceiling along with the four Jaffa.

"OK," said the Jaffa commander. "We've got ten minutes before it all goes back again. In that time you can tell us exactly what you..."

But the commander said no more because Angel had moved frighteningly fast to take out all four Jaffa. None of them knew what hit them as he delivered swift blows to the head and torso. What surprised Sam more than anything was that Angel had acted in complete silence. The only sound was the falling bodies hitting the floor or rather the ceiling. A couple of the Jaffa might have made a better fight of it but everybody, including Sam, was startled by Angel's sudden change into vampire face.

Angel morphed back to his usual human face but gone was not forgotten. After that I'm never going to think of this guy as human again thought Sam and I don't see how he can be a robot. And he comes from Earth. I've seen aliens and humans on other planets but all the time there were creatures like this back on Earth. I wonder what Janet would make of the physiology of it all?

Sam's next thought after Angel's disposal of the Jaffa was to raise the alarm about the second gravity flip that was planned by the enemy in what was now just under ten minutes time. She took out her radio and called the communication NCO who was with Willow and the main body of witches. She passed on the information about the second gravity flip and ordered that the information be passed on to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile Angel had been looking at the controls of the teleportation device, which was not easy to do now that everything was upside down.

"I don't think the Jaffa will send anybody else here until after the gravity is scheduled to be back to normal," said Angel. "But after that there will probably be more troops coming. Can you use this to transport us to the Control Centre, but at the same time stop the Jaffa from using this equipment to move their troops about?"

"I think so," replied Sam. "If you can lift me up and hold me upside down for a couple of minutes."

Angel did just that, Sam's weight providing no sort of strain for the vampire. Sam spent a short time examining the controls and setting things up. At Sam's request he put her down again. "I've put a small explosive in there. It'll go off after we leave," she said. "Now if you could just..."

Angel was already ahead of her. With an athletic leap he placed his feet on the floor above their heads, on the transport pad and wedged himself upside down ready for transport. He was about to grab hold of Sam to help her to do the same when Sam pointed out a problem.

"We'll still be on this ship," she explained. "Everything will still be upside down where we're going. We should transport ourselves upside down. Could you..."

Eventually both of them were within the transport area and upside down. Sam had warned Angel to be prepared for a fall at the other end because they would be materialising on what was now the ceiling.

Finally Sam primed the explosive and operated the controls but as they transported she realised that she'd forgotten something. If the witches' non violence spell had already taken effect it would stop the little explosive from working. The Jaffa would therefore still have a fully operating transport device.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cordelia, Kennedy and Gwen had left Wesley with Eve in Wesley's room in the hotel. Wesley was studying the book and would report his findings later. Eve had volunteered to stay with him to be available to answer questions about Wolfram and Hart in case there were things in the book which needed explaining. The other three women were now waiting outside the hotel for a carriage to take them to the Kallistien witch HQ so that they could find out how the attack on the spaceship was progressing and lend a hand if it was needed.

"Do you think those two are a couple?" asked Kennedy. "They've spent a lot of time together."

"Wes and Eve?" replied Cordelia surprised. "I hadn't even thought about it. I suppose they might be."

"He was rather concerned when she disappeared," said Gwen.

"Wasn't he just worried she might betray us?" asked Cordelia. Gwen just shrugged.

"You don't think she's that good looking do you?" asked Cordelia, I certainly don't, she added to herself. Wes can do better than that.

"Well I do," said Kennedy "I think she's really pretty. But she gives off the wrong signals for me."

"I think she's interested in Wes all right. But I don't know what Wes thinks. I don't find it very easy to read him," said Gwen. "Haven't you and Wes ever..." she added to Cordelia, deliberately leaving the question unfinished.

"He's changed a lot," said Cordelia. "When I first met him I was still at High School. I danced with him at the prom but it never actually went any further than that."

Cordelia broke off from what she was saying and stepped back away from the kerb side. She had adopted a blank expression and seemed to be looking at things invisible to everybody else. The other women knew the signs. Cordelia was having one of her visions. Gwen and Kennedy waited for Cordelia to explain what it was all about.

Cordelia rapidly returned to the present. "There's an attack coming in against the witch HQ," she said. "An attack by Jaffa using magic portals."

"But that's probably the best defended place on the planet," objected Gwen. "Don't they have spells and things to protect them?"

"Yeah they do but they're gonna be attacked anyway," replied Cordelia. "They eventually managed to protect the whole city during the last attack but it's just the HQ that has permanent protection. And a lot of the witches are away with Willow attacking that spaceship."

"So we'd better go and warn them," said Kennedy. "The sooner these people have cell phones the better."

"Oh yeah," said Cordelia. "Here we go again, haring across town at the last minute, hoping to arrive just in time. Reminds me of old times back in LA. Now if I could only get a little more advance warning in future?" The last was added in a loud voice with a look up to the heavens.

While they had been talking, the carriage had finally arrived. Kennedy leapt up beside the driver and stopped him from climbing down. She insisted that the driver immediately drive flat out to the witch HQ. By now Cordelia and Gwen had hurriedly gotten into the back of the carriage. As it set off, Kennedy swung down to join the others inside and to listen to details of exactly what Cordelia had seen.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's her," said Lilah Morgan. "The one walking towards us on the other side of the road, long dark hair, red sweater."

Lilah was sat in the front of a car alongside Colonel Maybourne outside the new Sunnydale High School watching the students leave the premises at the end of the school day. They were specifically watching Dawn Summers.

"I've met her," replied Maybourne. "Dawn Summers. You should have said that was who you wanted to see. I don't see think she's going to play ball without a lot of persuasion. She told me she's got two witches watching over her."

"Normally she's got more than witches watching out for her," replied Lilah. "Her older sister's The Slayer. But she's away with the witches on the other world. If everything goes to plan she'll stay there permanently with them."

"The Slayer?" asked Maybourne smiling. That sounds pretty formidable, formidable and ruthless he thought. Seems these people operate like wrestlers, adopt a big name to frighten the opposition. "She another one who makes you nervous?" he taunted.

Lilah glanced at Maybourne. "She's definitely another one you don't want to meet in a dark ally, not if you're a vampire anyway. But no, she doesn't make me nervous, at least not when she's on another world," said Lilah. "But Dawn there, the younger sister, she's got no special abilities herself, apart from some high class tuition in unarmed combat and I presume one young girl won't be a problem for your highly trained people."

"You know, sometime soon you and I are going to have a little chat about what exactly you and your firm are all about," said Maybourne. "I'm tired of being fed crumbs. You might be a lawyer and your firm might be set up as a firm of lawyers but there's a lot more to it than that."

"OK," said Lilah. "Take me out for dinner sometime soon and I'll answer all your questions. But for now let's concentrate on the business in hand."

"What about him?" interrupted Maybourne. "Is he a threat?"

As they watched, Dawn had crossed the street and was now talking to a young man who had been waiting for her. They had not specifically noticed this particular young man before amongst the many others in the area, as the school students flooded out of the premises.

"I don't think a boyfriend..." began Lilah who broke off what she was saying and leant forward. She carefully examined the young man. "Oh, uh... that could be a problem."

"Somebody you know?" asked Maybourne looking at Lilah. "Somebody else to worry about?"

"In a way," replied Lilah. "His name's Connor. He's Angel's son. I don't think any of your people could cope with him one on one."

"So what is he, bullet proof?" asked Maybourne.

"Oh no, or at least I don't think so. He can do a few pretty odd things by all accounts though," said Lilah. "If he's anywhere about, your guys had better make sure he doesn't get too close. He can move very quickly when he wants to."

"Get out of the car!" came the order in a loud voice, a loud female voice.

Lilah and Maybourne now realised that their car had suddenly been surrounded by armed police, all of whom were pointing guns directly at them. Maybourne turned in his seat and saw that the car parked a way behind them, which had three of his colleagues inside, was also surrounded by armed police.

"I repeat, get out of the car! This is your final warning," came the same loud voice again. "If there is any resistance we will open fire."

Lilah and Maybourne got out of the car and raised their hands. The armed officers turned them across the hood of the car and searched them for weapons. One of the officers removed Maybourne's gun. Other officers searched inside the car.

"Well, well, Lilah Morgan," said a voice familiar to Lilah, the voice of Kate Lockley. "So Wolfram and Hart have taken up stalking school children now? Getting lower all the time."

Lilah started to turn towards the voice but the officer behind her pushed her back down over the hood. Lilah was fuming. Kate Lockley is with Sunnydale Police now? Somebody should have told me she thought. Somebody is in for an ass kicking.

"We're on the business of National Security," said an annoyed Maybourne from his position alongside Lilah. "Any interference with what we're doing is a federal crime."

Kate Lockley, Police Lieutenant Kate Lockley looked over Maybourne's ID which had been passed to her by the officer who had searched the colonel. "I wonder if your superiors know you're stalking young girls," said Kate. "And if they do what they think about it."

Kate walked over to Maybourne. "A lot of young people have disappeared in Sunnydale in the past few years so we take it very seriously when we find people watching the local schools," she said. "Are you telling me they disappeared because of National Security?"

"Of course not," said Maybourne. "Nobody in Sunnydale has disappeared because of us. We're just doing our duty. You'd better release us now before you get yourself into even bigger trouble."

"Nobody in Sunnydale huh," said Kate. "And Wolfram and Hart in bed with National Security? You're swimming with the sharks Colonel. Before long they'll gobble you up. Anyway I couldn't release you now even if I wanted to. You wouldn't last five minutes on these streets. Take a look, people around here are very nervous about strangers checking out their kids. You need our protection."

Colonel Maybourne straightened up and looked around. By now a large crowd had gathered. A crowd that consisted of High School students and many parents. The gathering continued to increase and there was a growing murmur coming from the crowd. Hostile looks were coming from many of those watching. The crowd could easily turn into a mob given the right provocation.

"Take them down to the station," said Kate to her officers. "We'll check out all their ID's and have a little chat with them. Read them their rights, and if they make any more threats I want it recorded, word for word."

The last sentence caused a sharp increase in the muttering from the crowd and several people stepped forward to take photos of the Colonel and Lilah with their cellphones. Kate stepped forward to speak quietly to Maybourne and Lilah. "If your ID checks out you'll be released but you'd better stay away from Sunnydale in future. It won't be very healthy for you around here for a very long time."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"If it's a trap I'll teleport us both away," said Glory. "I'm stronger now. He won't know that, he won't expect it."

Glory had brought Daniel to the castle where she was due to have her next meeting with the Goa'uld Ninurta. Glory explained that she had not told Ninurta about the witch ceremony involving the Key and he did not know that Glory had not originally intended to keep the appointment.

Glory said she had hoped that the ceremony would succeed in charging up the Key so that it could be used to destroy the Goa'uld. As this had not happened she needed to continue her alliance with the rogue Goa'uld Ninurta. Glory still did not explain what had happened to the Key after the ceremony but she did not seem to be worried about it. Daniel assumed she had it hidden somewhere.

Now however Glory wanted information. She wanted to know what the Goa'uld knew about what was going on. She had also told Daniel that this was the best way of finding out what had happened to his companions but she mainly wanted to know if Ninurta still intended to betray Mitra.

Daniel was becoming suspicious of Glory. To start with she had refused to agree to him returning to the scene of the ceremony to see if any of his companions were still there, possibly injured. "Much too dangerous," she had insisted. She claimed to have sent observers back to the scene but he had never heard about them again, nor seen any such observers.

Secondly Glory had insisted that he be present at her meeting with Ninurta, despite his protestations that he should not be involved in view of the danger to the timeline. Daniel had tried to leave Glory when he thought she wasn't looking only to meet up with her again a few minutes later waiting for him just along the woodland path he had taken. After that Daniel had never found a suitable opportunity to leave. He had begun to wonder if she had somehow used magic to stop him from doing what he wanted.

After arriving in the castle dungeon ahead of time there had been a long wait for the Goa'uld. Just when Daniel, somewhat relieved, had decided there would after all be no meeting, Ninurta arrived in the cellar of the castle, over an hour late.

"I see you're still alive then," said Ninurta who didn't bother with an apology for being late. "A lot of witches aren't." He sounded pleased about that. "Who's your companion?"

"This is Daniel," said Glory. "We'll come to him in good time. First I want to know how Mitra knew about the ceremony."

"Mitra's got his own spies," replied Ninurta. "I don't know who they are, well not all of them anyway. I expect they include some of your witches. Did you really think you could involve that many people and still keep it all secret? Mitra knew what was going on several days ago."

"So what's Mitra planning to do next?" asked Glory, ignoring Ninurta's criticism.

"Have a celebration probably," said Ninurta. "He's very happy to have killed so many witches, all at the same time."

"Did he take any prisoners?" asked Glory. "People who might know our plans?"

"You're missing a few witches then," said Ninurta. "He might have a few locked away I suppose but if he does I don't know about it."

"Or you won't say," said Glory. "What about you? What do you intend to do next? Have you changed your mind?"

"Would I be here if I had?" said Ninurta. "If I intended to double cross you I wouldn't be here now. You'd be facing a lot of Jaffa instead, or maybe something worse. I could obliterate this whole castle without leaving orbit."

"Wouldn't do you any good if you did," said Glory. "I can protect myself long enough to get away from that sort of thing. OK, we move on our plan tomorrow at sunset local time. If you help, then you get what was promised. If you don't, then you get what Mitra is gonna get."

"You can still deliver, after losing all those witches?" asked Ninurta.

"Don't ever underestimate me," said Glory and for the first time in the conversation she sounded distinctly menacing. "With witchcraft it's always quality not quantity that counts. And yes, I've still got the quality."

"OK, that's agreed then," said Ninurta. "And what about Mr Daniel here?"

"Daniel's a precondition," said Glory. "You deliver Lissie by noon tomorrow and you get Daniel. Refuse and everything's off."

"Now wait a minute," began Daniel. "You know..."

"Sleep!" commanded Glory waving her hand at Daniel and he fell to the floor unconscious.

"Quality huh," said Ninurta, impressed despite himself. "And why should I want this Daniel?"

"Daniel's from the future," said Glory. "The far, far future. Witchcraft doesn't change with time but your machines and your other devices do. Daniel knows a lot about future devices. Can you imagine how valuable he can be to you?"

"You can prove this?" asked Ninurta walking over and looking down at Daniel. "He looks like just another Kallistian to me."

"Look at his teeth," said Glory. "You don't get dental work like that on Kallistien. And look at the quality of his clothes. They've been made on machines like the clothes worn by your people."

Ninurta knelt down and examined Daniel. "That doesn't mean he's from the future, he could just as easily be an off-worlder," he said. "There are people like him on a lot of worlds."

"And you'll have all the fun of finding out which he is," said Glory. "What have you got to lose anyway? I'm only asking you to deliver Lissie to me. After tomorrow she's no use to you any more."

"And if I don't agree?" asked Ninurta.

"Whatever happens, after tomorrow Mitra and all his people will be your enemies, those who are still alive," said Glory. "Do you want me to come after you as well? Because that's exactly what will happen if I don't get Lissie back, whole and unharmed. Do what I want and we need never meet again. We can both be on the winning side."

Ninurta paused, either thinking or just trying to give the impression that he was weighing up a difficult decision. "OK, agreed," he said finally. "She'll be here by noon tomorrow. We'll do the exchange then."


	27. Inner Demons

**Chapter Twenty Seven: Inner Demons**

Following a discussion between Faith and the sisters the witches had used magic to try to find Daniel or Glory or both, but without success. So much magic and so many magic users had been in the area that it interfered with their attempts at scrying. Either that or Glory had done something to hide herself and Daniel from any magical search. Rather than draw attention to themselves by going back to town and asking questions Prue had suggested that she stake out the dungeon in case Glory used it for another meeting.

"But she'll know you're there," Paige had objected. "Like she did before. And she might not be so friendly this time."

"I won't actually be there," said Prue. "Not in body anyway. I'm hoping she won't be able to detect my astral form. Especially if I get there before she does, so she won't feel me arrive."

"But you won't be able to do anything against Glory in your astral form," said Piper.

"I don't think we should be doing anything against Glory anyway," said Prue. "We've discussed all this. We mustn't interfere with what's going to happen."

"So how do you suggest we get Daniel back then?" asked Faith.

"We might not have to," said Prue. "Remember, we have the automatic return part of the time travel spell in force. All we really have to do is make sure nothing happens to Daniel up until it takes effect."

"Something might have happened to him already," said Faith. "He was unconscious when I last saw him."

"And we've got to make sure he isn't made to talk about the future," said Piper. "Although it might be too late for that. I expect Glory knows all about truth spells. It's a good job he doesn't know anything about what Glory did back on Earth."

"If the Goa'uld get hold of him they might put one of those Goa'uld parasites inside him," said Paige. "We don't want a Goa'uld Daniel going back to the future."

Some hours later Prue Halliwell was once again watching from the shadows. Once again she was standing in the dark listening to Glory have a conversation with the Goa'uld Ninurta. She now knew about Glory's proposal to exchange Daniel for Lissie, whoever that was. After watching the Goa'uld leave she saw Glory go over to Daniel and teleport the two of them away.

Back in the woods Prue opened her eyes. She quickly told her sisters and Faith what she had heard and witnessed.

"So we've got to be at this meeting and grab Daniel before the Goa'uld takes him away," said Piper. "We can't let Daniel be taken by the Goa'uld. That would ruin everything."

"Or we wait until the exchange has taken place and then rescue Daniel from the Goa'uld," suggested Faith. "That'll be a lot easier if Glory's out of the way first."

"But if we snatch Daniel from Ninurta won't he think Glory's double crossed him? asked Piper. "Especially as we'll probably have to use witchcraft. That could make a big difference to the timeline. It might break up his deal with Glory."

"But snatching Daniel before Ninurta arrives means we've got to find some way of getting in and out of the dungeon without letting Glory know we're there," said Paige. "Unless we can somehow find out where she's keeping him."

"What is it Prue?" asked Piper. Prue had not really taken any notice of what the others had been saying. She was deep in thought.

"I was thinking about this Lissie," said Prue. "I would guess the Goa'uld have her as some sort of hostage. She's obviously connected to Glory in some way, maybe a relative. But before we got here Glory didn't have anybody to exchange for her. We've changed things. We haven't just got to rescue Daniel, we've got to stop Glory getting Lissie back."

"You don't know that," said Faith. "Glory might have got this Lissie back some other way. You're just guessing."

"We can't afford to guess and get it wrong Prue," said Paige.

"It's about now that a vision from Phoebe would be a big help," said Piper with a sigh. "After this is over I'm swearing off any more time travel. It makes my brain hurt."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy reached the door to the Control Center to find it shut, something that surprised nobody. It was not a door which could easily be forced even by somebody of Buffy's strength. Unlike many of the doors found aboard the ship this was a metal reinforced drop down door, designed to be air tight if necessary and meant to be resistant to anything short of the application of explosives. Of course at the moment, with gravity reversed, it was a drop up door.

Before trying any sort of assault on the door Buffy turned to Jack: "Do you know anything about opening doors like this?" she asked. "Or should I start just battering away at it?"

"Isn't your red headed friend meant to be opening all the doors for us via the computer?" asked Jack as he looked at the blank, shut door. "Perhaps we should call her," he added pulling out his radio.

"She said she'd try to open all the doors," said Xander. "Try. But I expect she's busy at the moment. She can't do everything. You military guys have got to pull your weight some time."

Jack raised his eyebrows but said nothing in response. Guess I must have touched a nerve. Don't criticise my girlfriend? But Sam's sure Willow and Tara are an item. Maybe Xander's just got issues with the military?

"I expect she's busy with the gravity business," said Buffy to Xander. "Is there anything you could try that might work without us having to bother Willow?" she added to Jack.

Jack was examining the sides of the door and at last found what he was looking for. "Well I've got some explosives but they won't work now. But there maybe something I can do. First I need to work open this panel," he said looking at an almost invisible square on the wall which he knew was a panel which covered some of the control wiring.

The panel was a little above head height for Jack now that everything was upside down. As he pondered and rummaged in his pockets for a suitable tool to use to prise open the panel Buffy, anxious to keep moving, jumped up in the air and hammered her fist into the panel. The crumpled panel fell to the floor.

"Well that works I guess," said Jack who proceeded to start work on the wiring. Must remember not to make a pass at any of these chicks he thought. Shut up O'Neill he said to himself. Most of them are much too young for you anyway. I wonder if they're all naturally beautiful or if that's another benefit of knowing about magic. I always thought it funny that powerful witches were meant to be ugly crones. If the women I've known had known about magic I know the first thing they'd have used it for.

"Now the last time we were on a Goa'uld ship I think Carter joined these two wires together and that opened the door," said Jack as he worked away. "The Goa'uld never were set up to deal with burglars."

Abruptly the door began to open. Since everything was upside down the door began to sink into a slot in what was now the floor. Determined to take advantage of any surprise they might still have Buffy leapt over the descending door as soon as the gap was wide enough and disappeared inside. Jack and Xander followed quickly after, leaping over the still falling door.

Inside the room a fight was already in progress. Sam Carter was struggling with another woman on the floor up against the far wall while Angel was busy with a group of Jaffa to the right. Jack rushed over to Carter and took out the unknown woman with the butt of his gun. Meanwhile Buffy started towards the Jaffa but changed her mind almost immediately because into the room from the left came a seven foot tall armoured...something.

It wasn't clear whether the giant figure was a human in some sort of armoured suit or a robot. The figure said nothing and gave no indication either way. Whatever it was it headed straight for Angel. But it didn't get that far because Buffy intervened.

To start with Buffy went for the legs. Diving low she used her legs to trip the figure by slamming a brutal kick into the back of one knee. She succeeded in unbalancing the figure and sending it tottering across the room, crashing into the wall. The wall however enabled the figure to remain on its feet. It turned back at once only to receive a high powered slayer kick to the head from a leaping Buffy. This once again sent it crashing back into the wall.

While Buffy kept the armoured figure busy Xander joined Angel in confronting the group of Jaffa. He hit his first opponent with the Zat gun that was still in his hand. The Jaffa fell towards Angel who took advantage by knocking the man unconscious.

As the fighting continued Jack helped Sam to her feet. "The controls are through there," she gasped and pointed towards the open door from where the robot figure had come. Jack started off in that direction but Sam grabbed his arm. "But so are Marduk and a group of witches."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Working her way into the controls of the spaceship was a lot more difficult for Willow than it had been the last time she was on the ship. The last time there had been no magical defences, no witches working against her. Now things were different.

The witches working for Marduk had obviously learned something from what Willow had done before and they'd taken steps to try to prevent Willow from accessing the ship's systems again. So far they had been only partially successful.

Willow had not been able to take control of all of the main workings of the ship because so far she could not break into the main computer. She had however successfully isolated three decks of the ship from enemy control. Those decks, including the hanger deck with the Stargate, were now occupied by the attacking forces and were transmitting no information to Marduk and his forces. They were therefore 'blind' as far as knowing what was going on in the areas that had been taken over.

Willow's control of the ship's systems was now sufficient to maintain normal air and gravity in the areas controlled. The non-violence spell did not depend on any of the ship's systems and was still being maintained throughout the ship by three of the Kallistien witches working together. They had so far rebuffed all attempts to break that spell by the defending witches.

"Some of them should have reached the Control Centre by now," said Giles. "We should soon hear how they've got on, one way or another."

"I think I'll know when they get there," said Willow. "I'm hoping they'll distract the enemy witches and that'll let me get past their defences and into the main computer."

A young woman dressed as a Kallistian witch now ran into the room. She was nearly out of breath. "It's Phoebe," said Tara.

"I thought you were going to stay on the other side of the Stargate," said Willow to Phoebe. "Make sure we kept a line of retreat open?"

"Change of plan," gasped Phoebe who had run all the way from the Stargate on the hanger deck. The deck had now been secured by the Kallistien troops accompanying Teal'c and Drusilla plus the reinforcements that had come through the Gate from the SGC.

"I received a warning, one of my visions," said Phoebe. "We don't have much time, as usual."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The three women leapt from the carriage just before it stopped and raced into the witch HQ. As she ran up the steps to the entrance behind Kennedy and Gwen, Cordelia checked out the wards protecting the building. They all seemed to be in order, each of them shone brightly as she pointed her wand at the various focus points.

There should be no possibility of a Goa'uld attack penetrating this building thought Cordelia. Not unless the attackers have got a lot of magic power themselves. Could the Goa'uld really have that many witches? Nobody who had been taken over by a Goa'uld parasite should be able to enter the building and all modern weapons should be prevented from working inside the premises.

The wards on the building had been updated following Lord Shumi's attempted coup. There were witches on duty at all times to maintain those wards. Even an attack by enemy witches would be very difficult unless something happened to the duty witches inside the building.

Inside everything was quiet, business as usual as far as they could tell. They had been recognised by the guards on the door and allowed to enter. There were several people in the entrance hall talking quietly and two people at the reception desk.

Kennedy wasn't one to take chances, nor was she one to make polite inquiries at a reception desk when there was danger pending. "Sound the alarm!" she shouted from the middle of the entrance hall. "Action stations! Red alert or whatever you people do. There's an attack coming in from the Goa'uld. We've received a warning..."

But at that moment things changed. An official, a tall grey haired man in a green robe, had walked calmly up to the three Earth women as if to ask what they wanted and what all the shouting was about. As he arrived in front of them he suddenly morphed into a large green demon. The demon snarled and leapt towards Kennedy.

It was only Kennedy's slayer reflexes that saved her from being injured by the demon's sharp pointed teeth as she jumped sharply backwards and to one side. Before the demon could properly turn on her she felled him with a fast right hook. The fallen demon immediately leapt back to its feet but was not fast enough to avoid the follow up kick to the head from the slayer. It fell back to the ground and Kennedy moved in for the kill.

"Don't kill it!" shouted Cordelia. "We might be able to change it back."

Kennedy stopped her blow and contented herself with keeping a careful watch on the unconscious demon to make sure it didn't show signs of reviving any time soon.

"This isn't what your vision showed is it?" asked Gwen. "I thought you said it was Jaffa, magic portals and all that sort of thing. You didn't say anything about demons."

"There weren't any demons in the vision," said Cordelia who began to get the feeling something was very wrong. "But I never get the whole picture. We'd better find the senior witches. They might be able to figure it all out."

Cordelia still had her wand in her hand and decided to see if she could break the spell that had changed the man into a demon. She had barely started to focus the wand when there was a scream from behind. The three women turned to see another demon, presumably also somebody who had just changed. Kennedy didn't hesitate, she ran across the room to do battle with the new demon.

"They're applying some sort of transformation spell to this place," said Cordelia to Gwen. "But how have they managed to get past all of the magical defences? This sort of magic shouldn't be possible in here."

"You're the magic expert but I think we've got to get back outside," said Gwen. "Or we might be changed as well. Whoever's doing this must be close by. We've got to get them before anything else happens."

Gwen stopped talking and staggered back. She had now begun to change. Cordelia aimed her wand at her friend and concentrated her power through it but it made no difference because the transformation continued. Cordelia was now faced with a demon in front of her, the demon who used to be Gwen and it now attacked. Cordelia ducked the large clawed hand that attempted to take her head off and fell to the floor. She noticed as she fell that there were now several demons in the room and most of the remaining humans seemed to be screaming and running away in all directions.

Cordelia rolled away from demon Gwen, desperately holding tightly to her magic wand and trying to aim it at Gwen to stop her attack and hopefully change her back. As she rolled she realised that she needed to work fast before she was changed into a demon herself. Before Cordelia could properly aim her wand it looked as if demon Gwen would grab her but suddenly the demon fell to the floor in a heap, struck from behind by Kennedy.

"Can't you stop this?" yelled Kennedy. "Because if you don't we'll all be..." Kennedy stopped talking and staggered away as she began to morph herself. Her transformation complete, demon Kennedy turned back towards Cordelia but Cordelia was no longer there. The room was now filled with nothing but demons.

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"The sooner these people have cell phones the better," said Kennedy.

"Oh yeah," said Cordelia. "Here we go again, haring across town at the last minute, hoping to arrive just in time. Reminds me of old times back in LA. Now if I could only get a little more advance warning in future?" The last was added in a loud voice with a look up to the heavens.

As if in response to her plea a figure now materialised in front of her, a very familiar figure indeed; a second Cordelia.

"What, who," said the first Cordelia, completely taken aback.

Kennedy stepped forward and confronted the new Cordelia. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded.

"I''m Cordelia," said the newcomer.

"No you're not," said the first Cordelia. "I am."

"Of course you are," said the second Cordelia. "And so am I. I've just come from a few minutes in the future. Now listen carefully, we've all been had. Things are not what they seem."

"You think?" said Gwen.

"No interruptions," said the second Cordelia. "I'll probably disappear as soon as I've changed the timeline. You're all about to dash off to the witch HQ to stop an attack from the Jaffa. That might still happen, I don't know. But you've got to sort out something else first because you're infected with a demon transformation spell, or at least I am."

"Infected?" said the first Cordelia stepping back. Kennedy and Gwen also stepped back away from the second Cordelia and on second thoughts they stepped away from the first Cordelia and each other as well.

The second Cordelia explained what had happened when the three of them had arrived at the witch HQ.

"As far as I'm concerned demons mean Wolfram and Hart," said the second Cordelia. "The people in the HQ changed because we took some infection, some magic spell, probably from that Wolfram and Hart book, in past the defences. That's why those people changed and why it happened soon after we got there."

"So how do you suggest we deal...," began the first Cordelia but even as she spoke the second Cordelia began to fade away.

"Don't use the wand," were final words the words the three women were able to hear as the second Cordelia completely disappeared.


	28. Damage Limitation

**Chapter Twenty Eight: Damage Limitation**

Glory's teleportation took her to her room in a private safe house on the outskirts of the town. She arrived kneeling down with her hand on Daniel's shoulder. Daniel was still lying down in the sleeping position he was in when Glory had teleported.

"OK, you can get up now," said Glory standing up. "You can stop pretending. We're no longer in the castle."

Daniel opened his eyes and stood up. Glory went over to a wall cabinet and took out two glasses. "Drink?" she asked.

"Of what?" asked Daniel.

"Wine, red wine," said Glory taking hold of a bottle from the same cabinet and looking at the label. "Quite a nice wine actually."

"Thanks," replied Daniel. "So do you think my companions are prisoners then?"

"No, I now know they're not," said Glory.

"What exactly do you know," asked Daniel, "and how?"

"I find I'm getting better and better at telling truth from lies and picking up impressions from other people," said Glory. "The Goa'uld don't have any witch prisoners, I'm pretty sure of that. They probably don't want any witch prisoners. What they want to do is kill as many witches as they can."

"So where are my friends now?" asked Daniel. "You don't think they're dead do you?"

"No I don't. I expect they're doing what they came here to do," replied Glory. "Observing what's going on without taking part themselves."

"So I should join them," said Daniel. "Because that's exactly what I should be doing as well."

"All in good time," said Glory. "You're not a witch or a slayer. You're safest with me."

Daniel wasn't satisfied with this reply but decided not to press the point. He didn't know how far he could trust Glory but she obviously had no intention of letting him go, not at present anyway. He wasn't sure he should try to get away from her anyway. He was in what was probably the best place to observe exactly what went on. If only he could be sure he wasn't under the influence of some of Glory's magic or in danger of changing things just by being there.

Daniel decided to change the subject. "So do you trust Ninurta?" he asked. "Do you think he'll really help you?"

"I thought you knew about the Goa'uld," said Glory as she poured the drinks. "Anybody who trusts a Goa'uld is a fool. Anyway I think he plans to betray me. He's still working for Mitra. He knows Mitra's got spies amongst the witches but he wasn't bothered that they might have told Mitra about him. That must be because Mitra already knows about what Ninurta's up to."

"And should I trust you?" asked Daniel. "Can I trust you not to sell me to the Goa'uld?"

"I'd be an even bigger fool if I let the Goa'uld get their hands on you," said Glory walking over and handing a glass of wine to Daniel. "Good acting by the way. I'm sure he really thought I'd sent you to sleep."

"So who is this Lissie?" asked Daniel. "A relative of yours? Your daughter?"

Glory laughed. "My daughter?" she said. "Oh no, I've never met her, although Ninurta thinks she's my sister and that's the reason I want her back. Lissie is the Keeper of the Key. It's an inherited position. It's somewhat honorary these days but legend has it the old Keepers had a special affinity with the Key and could use it to perform wonders."

"Wonders?" queried Daniel. "What wonders?" There wasn't any mention of a keeper in that old book he thought.

Glory shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine," she said. "Nobody knows. Anyway we want the Keeper back to take care of the Key once we've finished with it. She should be able to shut it down after we've used it to get rid of the Goa'uld. It could cause a lot of trouble if it stays active."

"Can't you do that?" asked Daniel. "You'll be the one using it."

"I don't know. I might have to try," replied Glory. "But what I'll be doing is risky, very risky. I might not be around when this is all over."

"Do you think the Goa'uld know what you're going to do?" asked Daniel. "Is that why they seized the Keeper?" And why won't you give me any details he wondered. Is it because anything you tell me might become known to the Goa'uld? Are you still planning to exchange me? Are you feeding me information that you want the Goa'uld to find out about?

Glory laughed again. "Oh no, that's the funny thing," she said "She was included in a round up of a lot of what they thought were pagan priestesses. They've been imprisoning anybody they think has got any authority and killing any witches they can catch. But it's only because they grabbed the Keeper that anybody thought about using the Key."

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Tara couldn't have orbed them into the Control Center even if she had wanted to because she had never been there before. But she certainly wasn't staying behind. If Willow was going to get into even more trouble then Tara was determined to be there to keep an eye on her. Anyway she thought, at the moment there were no more casualties to treat. There was a lull in the fighting as each side concentrated on defending what it held.

Using another yellow portal might have been possible but the idea was rejected by Willow. It would probably be impossible to put a portal anywhere near the Control Centre without making it obvious and it would simply give the enemy too much warning. Willow therefore combined with Phoebe and Giles to do a spell to teleport them all directly into the Control Centre. As well as Tara they took Teal'c with them.

The first sight that faced them was expected. Everything was still upside down. Willow had successfully prevented Marduk's people from turning things the right way up again. Moving about in a ship with everything upside down was proving to be as much a handicap for the defending Jaffa as it was for the attackers. The familiarity of the defenders with the ship was in large part negated because everybody was operating in an unfamiliar environment.

A continuing problem for the Jaffa and the others supporting Marduk was the practical difficulty of operating the controls of the ship when everything was upside down. However they had nobody else to blame but themselves since the gravity flip had not been part of the attackers' original plan.

It was also no surprise to Willow and the others that there were a group of witches in the control room, working on behalf of Marduk. The prime purpose of these witches was presumed to be the protection of Marduk himself from magical attacks as well as their work in trying to block Willow from trying to take control of the ship's computer and controls.

Willow had put up a magical shield of her own before teleporting. A wise precaution as it turned out because magical attacks in the form of energy bursts directed at the new arrivals by the enemy witches started immediately Willow and the others arrived.

Marduk was sat in a control chair surrounded by seven witches sat cross-legged on the floor around him. It was from these witches that the attacks began, in the form of power discharges which were successfully absorbed by Willow's shield. There were no Jaffa or other crew members present. They were all busy battling the other teams in the next room.

Meanwhile Marduk aimed his own hand held weapon in an effort to kill the attackers. This weapon, which was the same size and approximate shape as a rifle, proved to be ineffective because the spell preventing the discharge of weapons was still in force. In an absolute rage Marduk rushed forward, weapon in hand, intent on using it as a club to kill the witches attacking him.

Teal'c stepped forward to confront the Goa'uld. After an exchange of blows they grasped each other and fell to the floor, each struggling to get the better of his opponent. Meanwhile the battle between the witches continued.

With Willow occupied in fending off the attacks of the other witches, Phoebe and Giles looked around the Control Center in an effort to stop the disaster that Phoebe had been warned against. There was a self-destruct mechanism on the ship and in her vision Phoebe had seen Marduk activate it before having his witches teleport him to safety. If Marduk wasn't stopped then everybody on board would be killed.

Jack and Sam now entered the room and tried to help Teal'c in his struggle with Marduk. Teal'c had so far managed to hold off Marduk but had not been able to do any damage to him. His protections were still working even if his weapons were not and he was enormously strong, partly thanks to the equipment he was wearing.

Jack hammered his rifle butt into Marduk who fell back from where he had been trying to throttle Teal'c. The blow was shrugged of by the Goa'uld who rolled back to his feet. For the first time Marduk appeared to realise how many people had arrived to attack him and he jumped back within the protection of his circle of witches.

Jack and Sam rushed after Marduk but were repulsed and thrown back by the magic shield being maintained by the witches, a shield that Willow had not yet been able to penetrate.

"The controls must be in there with him," said Giles. "We've got to stop him."

"Stop him doing what?" asked Sam.

"Stop me from destroying this ship and everybody in it," said Marduk holding up a control pad. "As soon as I input the command you all have ten seconds before the whole ship explodes."

"That'll kill you and your people along with everybody else," said Sam.

The Goa'uld smiled. "Will it?" he said.

"He plans to have his witches teleport him away," said Phoebe.

"I might be able to stop that," said Willow staring directly at Marduk. "You might be stuck here with us. You might die along with everybody else."

"And I might not," said Marduk. "I'll take my chances. But first I'll give you and your troops a chance to get off my ship. Leave and you can live. Stay and you all die."

"And let you keep the ship to use against us?" said Jack. "No thanks. You've got to come up with a better deal than that. How about you surrender and we let you live?"

"I'm not the one in danger of dying," said Marduk.

At that moment the armoured warrior came through the door and it came fast.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The transport shuttle landed on the field outside the castle. A group of armed Jaffa surrounding a man and a teenage girl left the shuttle and entered the castle over the causeway which led through the main gate. On the battlements above they were watched by four women, the three witch sisters and Faith.

The women had discovered that the castle was not after all used as a base by the Goa'uld. It was undefended and most of it was empty although various rooms were used by the locals for special events and as meeting halls. It had simply been selected by Glory and Ninurta as a convenient meeting point.

It seemed that the original spell to take the time travellers to the most appropriate time and place, to find out what had happened in the past was the reason why they had ended up outside the castle. Otherwise it would have been an enormous coincidence for them to have arrived just as the meeting between Glory and Ninurta was taking place.

As the new arrivals entered the castle forecourt Paige orbed the group of four down into the shadows of a nearby walkway where Ninurta and his party could not see them and they could carry out their plan. The first order of business was to create a diversion.

Ninurta's party had stopped out in the open in the middle of the courtyard. "Search the dungeon basement," he ordered, addressing his command to the senior Jaffa present. "Make sure it's safe and secure down there." The Jaffa leader and three colleagues entered the main castle keep while the remaining Jaffa waited on guard surrounding Ninurta and the young girl.

Ninurta and his party watched the Jaffa disappear inside the keep. Suddenly a scream rang out from behind them. They turned to see a woman run out of a room on the other side of the courtyard. A second woman came out of the room and dragged the first woman back inside.

One of the Jaffa started towards the room. "I'll find out what's going on my lord," he said to the Goa'uld.

"Stay here," ordered Ninurta. "Probably nothing for us to worry about. We'll know soon enough if it's important."

What the Goa'uld did not realise what that the incident was a planned distraction and part of the plan of the Earthwomen. It had succeeded in drawing the attention of the Goa'uld and all of the Jaffa for the vital few seconds necessary for Paige to orb close enough to the waiting group to be able to get a good sight of the young girl.

Paige orbed back to join her sisters. Prue and Piper in disguise had played the parts of the two women providing the distraction and Faith had been on standby to deal with any Jaffa who tried to follow the sisters or who got in the way. The plan was that once Paige had had a good look at the girl she would magically disguise herself as the captive. Once inside the castle the plan was to switch the girl for Paige.

Paige, disguised as Lissie, would then be delivered to Glory, who hopefully would not be able to tell the difference. At a suitable moment Paige would grab Daniel and orb away. The Goa'uld would not get Daniel and Glory would not get Lissie back so hopefully the timeline would not be changed.

Apart from the possibility that Glory had enough power to recognise what was going on and stop it the main risk was that this plan would disrupt the alliance between Glory and Ninurta, an alliance that might have been important in getting rid of the Goa'uld. The problem was that doing nothing might be worse than doing something and they simply couldn't risk Daniel falling into the hands of the Goa'uld.

"The main thing seems to be using the Key to put up some sort of barrier rather than the alliance with Ninurta," Prue had pointed out when the plan had been discussed.

"I hope you're right," had been Piper's response.

"All OK?" asked Faith quietly as she arrived back with Paige..

"Yes and no," replied Paige.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Faith.

Prue and Piper now also arrived back from the diversion and Prue asked the same question as Faith.

"That girl," said Paige. "I know her. We all know her. It's Dawn Summers."

"That's impossible," said Faith. "How did she get here? She's meant to be back in Sunnydale."

"Well it's not her exactly," replied Paige. "This girl's too young for that. But she looks like Dawn Summers, exactly like Dawn Summers."

"It must be something to do with the Key," suggested Prue. "It can't be a coincidence."

"But does it change the plan?" asked Piper. "We can figure all that out later."

"It changes it alright," said Faith. "You can't let Glory see Dawn, or Lissie whoever she is. You can't even let her see Paige looking like Dawn. When Glory came to Sunnydale, I don't think she knew Dawn at all. It'll change things big time if she recognises her later."

"Well if we need a new plan we'd better come up with it quick," said Paige looking at Ninurta and his party. "They're going inside now."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"OK, I'll see you then," said Lilah before putting the phone down. "We've got her," she said to Maybourne. "She'll be here with us in a few hours."

"How exactly?" asked Maybourne. "If that's not another one of your endless secrets"

Following release from the Sunnydale Police Station Lilah had informed Maybourne that she had another way to get things done. He had agreed to let her try. Let her try? He was in no doubt that Miss Lilah Morgan would do just what she intended to do anyway, just like she always did.

Lilah and Maybourne had gone back to LA and were now in Lilah's office. To Maybourne the office looked like any other office building and Wolfram and Hart looked like any other legal firm. More security than most perhaps but in recent years everybody had beefed up their security. His main impression was that he had only seen the tip of the iceberg. He had only been shown what the regular visitors got to see. He hadn't expected anything else.

"She went to the local club with some friends," explained Lilah. "A couple of my people picked her up there."

"And all her special friends just looked the other way?" asked Maybourne. "I don't think so. Tell me more."

"Let's just say that not all witches are working against us," said Lilah. "Magic, in the right hands, can be very useful."

"So what's so special about Dawn Summers?" asked Maybourne. "And how will she help stop the Goa'uld from ever coming back to our world?"

"Well a couple of years ago a woman called Glory came to this world, well more than a woman really but let's leave it at that," began Lilah.

"You mean a Goa'uld?" asked Maybourne.

"Oh no, not a Goa'uld," said Lilah, "Glory's very different to a Goa'uld. Anyway she didn't want to be here and tried to track down a mystic Key which she needed to return to her home world. We know she found it because it opened up a major portal to other worlds. But we also know that things didn't go the way she planned because the portal wasn't open for very long before it was shut again."

"And all this matters to us because..." said Maybourne.

"We've now found out that the same mystic Key was used by the Kallistians many years ago to protect their world from the Goa'uld," said Lilah. "We think it's still on Earth. If we can find it, I have people who should be able to use it to protect Earth from the Goa'uld and at the same time stop anybody coming back to Earth from Kallistien."

"So why do we need Dawn Summers?" asked Maybourne.

"Well we know she was with Glory when the portal was opened," said Lilah. "In fact Glory took her captive a day or two before she opened the portal."

"So this girl might know what happened to the Key," said Maybourne.

"More than that," replied Lilah. "There was always somebody on Kallistien who looked after the Key. Somebody with an affinity for it, a Keeper. Dawn Summers might be just such a person. That's probably why Glory grabbed her. Having her might be essential to making the Key work properly. She might be looking after it herself or know where it is."

"Maybe the Key coming here from Kallistian is what lost them their protection against the Goa'uld," said Maybourne.

"Probably not," said Lilah. "We think it's been on Earth for a very long time. Something else must have happened to it in the past two or three years. We know that the people looking after it tried to hide if from Glory. We think they did something to it. We might have to reverse whatever it was they did before it'll work for us."

And just how do you know all of this thought Maybourne. How much of what you're telling me is true? And what more do you know that you're not telling me? And most important of all, why are you involving me in all this? Wolfram and Hart seem to have the resources to play this game without a partner so why are they working with the NID?


	29. Facing the Enemy

**Chapter Twenty Nine: Facing the Enemy**

Glory teleported into the basement of the castle ready for the meeting with the Goa'uld Ninurta and the promised exchange of Daniel for Lissie. As they arrived Glory put her hand over Daniel's mouth.

"Not a sound," she ordered in a barely heard whisper, at the same time glaring at Daniel.

As Daniel looked through the gloom he saw the back of a Jaffa disappearing along the corridor leading out of the room, holding a light in his hand. Daniel said nothing but gave Glory a look of inquiry. As the light held by the Jaffa disappeared along the corridor the room became completely dark. Glory quietly muttered an incantation and a small witch light floated up in the air giving a little illumination.

"Ninurta's people have been checking this place out for traps," whispered Glory. "They haven't found anything because there's nothing to find. I made sure not to arrive in this room until after they left."

"Perhaps they've set up some traps of their own," suggested Daniel who immediately wished he could take the comment back. Just being an observer without contributing is what he knew he should be doing but he simply found it impossible to remain passive in a situation like this. Making helpful remarks came naturally. He still felt uncomfortable about just watching the Jaffa attack on the witch ceremony in the woods.

"Perhaps they have," said Glory with a smile. "We'll find out won't we? But I expect Marduk will want to carry out the exchange first before springing any surprises."

"But you said you're not going through with the exchange, so why am I here?" asked Daniel suspiciously. She doesn't seem worried about anything Marduk might do he thought. She still seems to be getting stronger. And how did she know she wouldn't arrive in the room until after the Jaffa left?

"Ninurta will be walking out of here with an image, a simulacrum of you," replied Glory. "Having you here makes it easier to make and maintain the image. Watch!"

Glory quietly muttered another incantation, waved her hand and a second Daniel appeared in the room face to face with the real Daniel. Glory waved her hand again and the second Daniel silently went over to the other side of the room and stood there with his back to the wall.

"The Goa'uld won't know the difference," said Glory. "Stay near me and Ninurta won't be able to see you," said Glory. "And don't say anything once he and his people get here."

Daniel still didn't know whether to trust Glory or not. He wouldn't be at all surprised if she really did turn him over to the Goa'uld. She certainly wasn't telling him everything. He was now sure she had done something, something magical to stop him escaping. He knew he should have made further attempts to escape but he hadn't been able to bring himself to do anything. He knew for sure that what was happening could not have happened before. There must be a grave danger of compromising the time line.

So many things are potentially threatening the timeline we just have to hope that something like the finger in the river theory is true thought Daniel. The theory that Daniel was thinking about said that although minor changes to the timeline were possible anything beyond that was impossible. Of course what was minor in the great universal scheme of things might still be devastating from a human viewpoint.

The theory suggested that a time traveller would have the equivalent affect of a finger being put into a river. Although the immediate surroundings would change and a little bit of the river would flow slightly differently this made no perceptible difference to the overall flow of the river which was decided by much stronger and irresistible forces. As soon as the finger was removed, that is the influence of the time traveller was removed, everything would quickly become exactly the same as if nothing had happened.

This deterministic theory was in contrast to the butterfly wing chaos theory which proposed that even something a minor as a butterfly flapping its wings differently would eventually build up into a massive change to what happened in the universe as a whole. Well if there's anything to the butterfly wing theory we're already well and truly messed things up thought Daniel.

For some reason Glory, who had claimed more than once that she recognised it was in her interest not to change things, was trying to do just that. Daniel had pointed out that even pretending to exchange him for Lissie must be a new departure and not what had happened before. Glory had simply claimed that what she was doing was necessary.

"But you know you'll defeat the Goa'uld if you don't change anything," Daniel had explained. "You're putting all that at risk."

"It's you people who've put it at risk, just by coming here," had been Glory's response. "How do I know you haven't already changed things yourselves? How do I know the Goa'uld aren't really defeated a hundred years from now? I'm doing what I think is right. That's all I can do."

Daniel was given no more time for reflection. "Shhhh," said Glory even though Daniel wasn't making any sound. "Stay close. I can hear them coming down the stairs."

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Buffy concentrated on speed, on keeping away from the metal warrior or robot and darting in whenever she could, to deliver what were meant to be disabling, but not lethal blows to the body. The trouble was the blows had no visible effect apart from a little superficial damage to the metalwork.

The creature or machine seemed to be unaffected by the punishment it had taken as it continued its efforts to get close to Buffy. The main reason why it had so far failed to make more than superficial hits on the slayer was because of a lack of agility. The metal whatever-it-was was very powerful and well protected but not able to move or dodge as quickly or effectively as the much smaller slayer.

Meanwhile Angel and Xander continued their combat with the group of Jaffa. Until Xander joined in, Angel had been just about holding his own. With Xander's intervention and distraction Angel had been able to take out two of the Jaffa, just leaving three others.

For the moment Angel ignored the Jaffa who was trying to batter Xander and delivered a high kick against one of his two remaining opponents. The Jaffa staggered back into his colleague and just for a moment Angel had a view of Buffy's combat with the armoured figure. He at once noticed something about Buffy and her opponent.

"Don't hold back," he yelled at Buffy. "It's not human, it's just a thing. You can destroy it."

"Are you sure?" gasped Buffy as she rolled away from the latest effort by the armoured figure to knock her head off and came back to her feet.

"I'm certain," called Angel as he finally reduced his immediate opponents to one by using an old fashioned upper cut. "I can smell it and hear it. Most of it's a machine. There's some sort of organic component but it's lifeless. No blood, no brain, no breathing. It's just a thing."

Angel now finished off his last opponent by slamming him up against the nearest wall. He then turned to help Xander. But Xander no longer needed any help. He was rising to his feet, bloodied and bruised, but the victor in his battle with the other Jaffa. Xander Harris thought Angel, easy to underestimate, he always does better than you expect. Jaffa were tough but not as tough as a vampire, or many of the demons that Xander had faced in Sunnydale and Xander never backed down when his friends were in danger although friend certainly didn't describe the way Xander thought of Angel.

By now Buffy had really cut lose on her metal opponent. She was delivering a fast succession of devastating punches and kicks to the body and head. For the first time the robotic warrior was showing signs of wear. At last, after being hit by a particularly powerful flying kick from the slayer it lost balance and fell onto one knee and then face down onto the floor. It showed signs of stirring and getting back to its feet until Buffy jumped high above it and came down with a final crushing blow to the head with both feet.

"We'd better see if they need any help next door," said Xander after a deep breath. He started off in that direction. I'm sure I heard Willow in there he thought.

"Just a minute," said Buffy walking back over towards the fallen robotic warrior. She picked it up and led the way towards the other room. At the doorway she suddenly moved quickly to aim and throw the cyborg into the other room.

Action and conversation in the other room suddenly stopped as the armoured warrior/robot came through the door. It came fast because of the strength of Buffy's throw. Buffy had hoped to scatter Marduk's witches with her throw but they didn't move. The magic shield held by the witches remained intact and the metal figure stopped dead at the barrier and fell to the ground where it remained immobile.

Now the center of attention, Buffy walked into the room followed by Angel and Xander. "Got any more pieces of junk like that?" she asked looking straight at Marduk.

"You must be a new sort of witch," said Marduk. "But it won't do you any good. Goodbye." With that he began inputting the command code for the self-destruct into the key pad he held in his hand.

Tara up to that moment had just been a spectator. She had kept a tight hold on Willow, ready to act if anything looked like hurting her partner. Now it was quite clear that Willow and the other witches were in danger. She was therefore justified in taking action herself. Without a word to anybody she let go of Willow's hand and orbed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So how does that work then?" asked Kennedy. "Every time you screw up you do a time travel spell and go back to tell yourself what went wrong? Neat trick if you can do it. Next time read a few of the racing results or lottery numbers before you come back huh?"

"Doesn't work like that," said Cordelia. "You try to do something for personal gain and it always works out badly. You ask Willow sometime what happened when she decided to have a little fun with magic." Cordelia paused briefly. "On second thoughts don't ask Willow, not a good idea."

"It doesn't sound so good to me anyway," said Gwen. "I mean I'm not the same person I was yesterday, or last week, or last year. If I went back and spoke to my previous self it's kind of like committing suicide. This me, the me I am now, ceases to exist. No thanks."

Cordelia was leading the way back upstairs to the hotel room where Wesley and Eve were studying the Wolfram and Hart book. She hurried because she didn't know how much time they had before people started turning into demons. As she made her way to the door of the room she had a lot of questions in her mind but few answers.

Was it that book thought Cordelia? It must have been. It must have been the book that infected us, infected me. Will it change us all into demons here in the hotel or does it only work over in the witch HQ? Did the wards protecting the HQ set it off? Is it an attack on us or an attack on the Kallistians? What do Wolfram and Hart expect to achieve by all this? Are they really working with the Goa'uld?

They reached the hotel room and went straight in. The room was empty and so was the adjacent bathroom as they discovered after a brief examination. No Wesley and no Eve but no signs of foul play.

"Where could they be?" asked Gwen. "We weren't gone for long. They must have left the room soon after we did. Could they have gone down the back stairs or left by some other method?" The three women had already passed by the nearby meeting room and it was empty.

Cordelia went over to the window. It looked down on the street at the front of the hotel. "It's all normal out there, no panicky people running around," she said. "That must mean there isn't a Wesley demon or an Eve demon down there, at least not yet."

"Eve's room?" suggested Kennedy suggestively. She immediately led the way out of the room and along the corridor to Eve's room. The door was locked but Kennedy didn't let that slow her down. She forced the door open and led the way into the room.

There were no people in the bedroom or the bathroom but the Wolfram and Hart book was present, or what had been the book. Somebody or something had ripped the book apart and pages, many torn and in fragments, were strewn around the room. Even the cover of the book had been torn to pieces.

"Maybe somebody has been turned into a demon?" suggested Gwen. "Maybe they've both been turned into demons and they ripped up the book before they left?"

"Oh yeah? So which demon locked the door behind them then?" asked Cordelia.

"Maybe they locked themselves in before they disappeared, before they became demons," suggested Kennedy, "to make sure they weren't disturbed."

"Could you use your wand to find Wes?" Gwen asked Cordelia.

"My wand!" said Cordelia. "It touched the book. I can't trust it. That must be why future me said not to use it." Using a handkerchief Cordelia brought out the wand from the inside pocket of her jacket and tossed it away from her into the middle of the floor amongst the pieces of the book.

"Nobody touch anything!" ordered Cordelia. "Don't touch anything to do with the book, or the wand..."

"Or you?" said Kennedy.

"Or me," agreed Cordelia.

"If it's the wand then why haven't you been affected already?" asked Gwen.

"Ever hear of Typhoid Mary?" asked Cordelia.

Kennedy shook her head but Gwen nodded. "You mean somebody who spreads a disease without getting it themselves?"

"Uh huh," said Cordelia. "That's how I'd arrange things if I was trying to spread something like this. The first person to touch the book, or in my case touch the wand which touched the book, becomes a transmitter without being affected themselves."

"But you didn't, or rather the other you didn't say she touched everybody who changed into a demon," said Kennedy.

"But she did use the wand when she arrived at the witch HQ," said Cordelia. "That might have spread the infection all through the place."

"But wasn't Eve the first person to touch the book," asked Gwen. "Why wasn't she affected?"

"Yes, she was," said Kennedy. "Maybe it wasn't touching the book. Maybe it was because you touched it with your wand. Your magic might have set off the trap."

"And every time I use the wand I spread the infection," said Cordelia. "Yes, that makes sense."

"But thanks to your future self you haven't used the wand since it touched the book," said Gwen. "So we should be alright."

"I hope so," said Cordelia. "Look you guys get out of here. Go and warn the witches about that attack coming in from the Goa'uld and do what you can to help. I'll try to get rid of this demon infection and find Wes and Eve." And have a long talk with Eve thought Cordelia.

"And if we change into demons?" asked Kennedy.

"In that case I suggest you go back to Wolfram and Hart and have a little demon to demon talk with them," said Cordelia. "It's about time they learnt to stop messing with us."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tara's orb took her inside the circle formed by the witches protecting Marduk where she appeared behind the Goa'uld. She appeared with her hands outstretched and immediately dropped a small chain over Marduk's head and then stepped back. Marduk turned at once and drew back his hand to hit Tara but then stopped.

A puzzled expression appeared on Marduk's face and he put his hand down. He dropped the key pad onto the floor, not having finished the self-destruct sequence. "What? How?" he said as he looked around him as if for the first time and then at himself. He flexed his fingers and felt his face. "It's gone! I'm, I'm Jagerat again, I'm me."

"You have broken the hold of the symbiote on the host," said Teal'c to Tara. "How were you able to do that?"

"Magic?" suggested Jack. I'm getting to like this way of explaining everything he thought. Beats one of Sam's explanations hands down. She'd probably come up with something like an 'in phase vibration theory thingy' and have a half dozen charts to explain it all. He glanced briefly at a thoughtful Sam. All this must annoy the hell out of her.

"We made these amulets," said Willow. "There's one on that chain. They provide protection to stop something or somebody else from taking over your mind. So long as you keep wearing the chain with the amulet on you can't be taken over or controlled by somebody or something else."

Sam looked at Jack and Jack looked at Sam, both with the same thought. "Could you run a few of those off for us and the other SGC people," asked Jack. "We always seem to be running into people or things who try to take over our minds, not just the Goa'uld."

"Better get Anya to negotiate a contract for you," said Buffy to Willow. "She'd love to get involved in something like that. A government contract. She probably dreams about things like that."

"If I did that I'd have to give her ten percent," said Willow. "But it might be worth it if..." Willow stopped because she realised that Tara was looking at her with a quizzical expression. She gave one of her old nervous grins. "Just joking. Of course we can't make money out of magic, no personal gain. But we'll see what we can do to help SG-1 when we have the time."

By now Tara had completed the other part of her plan. She had gone around the circle of sitting witches and placed a chain with an amulet over the head of each witch in turn. The result was less dramatic for the witches than it was for Marduk because the control which they were under was more subtle but in a few moments the magic barrier protecting Marduk had been dropped and the witches began standing up, wondering what had been going on.

"Jag... um, whatever your name is. Could you please tell all Marduk's Jaffa on the ship to stop fighting," asked Jack.

"And could somebody please turn everything the right way up again before I barf," said Xander. He looked somewhat the worse for wear as he leant against the wall.

Tara immediately orbed over to Xander and started healing him. Willow and Buffy rushed over as well. As Tara carried out the healing she suddenly looked up as if paying attention to a hidden voice. She finished the healing and then turned to Willow. "Duty calls," she said and orbed away.

"I didn't think she could orb back to her other charges on Earth," said Phoebe.

"She can't," said Willow. "But she's got one other charge right here on Kallistien."

"Cordelia," said Giles.


	30. Good Guy? Bad Guy?

**Chapter Thirty: Good Guy? Bad Guy?**

"I'll start the questioning," said Maybourne. "If she co-operates then we won't need to do anything else."

"You think she'll be frightened by your interrogation technique?" asked Lilah. "You didn't do too well the last time did you?"

"I found out what I needed to know," replied Maybourne, brushing aside the reference to his previous interview with Dawn Summers. But inside he was furious. What does she mean by that? I just said I'd spoken to Dawn Summers before. Lilah Morgan's pretty good at giving the impression she knows more than she really does but that was close to home, too close. Does she have sources of information inside the NID? I'll have to look into that when I get back to the office.

"Anyway I'm sure having you in the room looking suitably mean and menacing will make all the difference," said Maybourne. "You might not have to do anything else, just keep practicing that shark like smile you have."

"We'll see," said Lilah following Maybourne into the room.

As Maybourne, followed by Lilah Morgan, walked into the room where Dawn Summers was being held prisoner she looked up from the chair where she was sitting. She looked him straight in the eye. Very good thought Maybourne. Try to make a connection with your interrogator, try to get him to be sympathetic.

Maybourne turned to Lilah. "You know there's no need for you to be here. Dawn and I can have a little chat and sort all this out without any unpleasantness," he said.

"She already knows we're working together," said Lilah smiling. "She knows there's nothing I won't do if I think it's necessary. I'll stay, just in case I'm needed."

"So how much did you get for it?" asked Dawn as she continued to stare at Maybourne.

"Huh?" said Maybourne. "What are you talking about?"

"Your soul, how much did you get for it?" said Dawn. "You better have made a good deal because it's the only one you've got."

"Very funny. Now what..." began Maybourne.

"I'm not being funny, I'm being deadly serious," said Dawn continuing to look Maybourne straight in the eye. "You're working with Wolfram and Hart. That means signing up to go to the hot place down below. It's pretty hot I can tell you. I've been for a visit. You won't like it down there."

"Well little miss know-it-all perhaps you can tell us why you're here," said Lilah. "I'll give you a clue. It's not to sign away your soul."

"Blackmail of course," said Dawn. "From what I hear I'm looking at two experts in blackmail. I expect you intend trying to blackmail my sister to do what you want. It won't do you any good. Buffy always wins. That's just the way things work."

"This has got nothing to do with your sister," said Maybourne. "We need to know everything you know about the woman called Glory and about what happened in Sunnydale three years ago."

"Glory? Glory was a mad woman," said Dawn. "I'm sure Lilah's told you that. She had a crazy tower built by a group of lunatics and odd little demons. I've no idea why. It's all fallen down again. Can I go now?"

"We know all about the Key young lady," said Lilah. "We want to know where it is and how Glory used it to open that portal," she added thus making it perfectly clear that she did not know all about the Key.

"Then I suggest you find Glory," said Dawn. "For all I know she's still got it. Didn't you ask her about it when she turned up again a few months ago?"

Maybourne gave Lilah a puzzled look. She had not mentioned anything about Glory turning up again.

"Yes she turned up again," said Lilah. "But you know full well I never got to see her then. As I recall she was in Sunnydale with you and your friends. Anyway we're wasting our time here. There's a much easier way to do this."

As she finished speaking Lilah went over to the door and opened it. A man entered. He was dark haired, slim, in his mid twenties and tall, about six foot four. He was well dressed and could have passed for one of the Wolfram and Hart lawyers.

"This is Geoffrey," said Lilah. "He works for Wolfram and Hart and he's a vampire."

"A vampire? Are you kidding?" asked Maybourne.

"Oh no, we've got vampires, real vampires on our payroll. The rest of the lawyers just seem like vampires," said Lilah.

"You think he can make her talk?" asked Maybourne. He didn't admit it to himself but the man, the vampire, who hadn't yet said a word somehow made him nervous. Maybourne backed away a little and put his hand where he could quickly draw his gun.

"Doesn't matter," said Lilah. "Geoffrey here is going to sire Dawn. That means he'll arrange things so that she'll die here and now but she'll rise again tomorrow as a vampire. She'll then be quite happy to tell us everything she knows about Glory and the Key. She'll also give you a clean bill of health to your bosses because she'll look and sound exactly like Dawn does now, with all of her memories."

"Don't think this is the first time she's done something like this," said Dawn. "Do any of your NID people keep out of direct sunlight these days? Any security leaks you can't explain?"

Maybourne turned to stare at Lilah, his mind racing. Could they do that to anybody? It would be as bad as Goa'uld possession. Dawn interrupted Maybourne's train of thought before it went any further.

"Sounds like the hot place down below is getting closer and closer Colonel," said Dawn. "This is probably your last chance to remain part of the human race. You stick with Wolfram and Hart and one way or another you won't remain human much longer." She didn't sound the least little bit frightened.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Half way down the winding staircase leading to the dungeons was a small room leading off an even smaller landing. The room had probably been for the use of the gaolers in years gone by but was now empty, without any furniture. With no source of light it was pitch black, even during the day. In the plans of the Earth women it was due to play a vital part in how they intended to stop Lissie from joining Glory.

The winding, narrow staircase only allowed groups of people to ascend or descend in single file. The original plan was for Paige to be magically disguised as Lissie. She would orb to the small room with Piper before the Goa'uld and his party reached that point on the staircase. The two sisters would wait in the dark until Lissie reached the landing outside the room when Piper would freeze everybody on the staircase. Paige would then orb Lissie and Piper away before orbing back to take Lissie's place.

Everybody had now agreed it was imperative that Glory not see Lissie or even Paige disguised as Lissie. Faith knew that Glory had not recognised Dawn when she came to Sunnydale. This was only comprehensible if she had never met Lissie. If she had recognised Dawn then things would have gone very differently back in Sunnydale. It was of course possible that Glory had simply forgotten Lissie and not realised that Dawn looked exactly like her but nobody wanted to rely on that since the consequences of getting it wrong could be catastrophic.

A change of plan had been hurriedly decided upon. Now Paige did not bother with the disguise before she orbed to the room with Piper. They had decided to snatch Lissie without leaving a substitute. Nobody had been able to think of an alternative plan in the few moments since Ninurta and his party had entered the keep.

"Damned if we do and damned if we don't. We've just got to minimise the damage and hope nothing that happens has a dramatic affect on the future." Prue had said. She realised that whatever they did they were risking the timeline.

Ninurta was right behind Lissie as he followed her down the stairs into the dungeon basement. He was looking right at her when she simply disappeared. One instant she was there and the next she was not.

The Goa'uld nearly missed his step in surprise but quickly recovered himself. Magic! That cursed witch had decided to double cross him. In no time at all the Goa'uld had worked himself up into a towering rage.

Getting control of himself Ninurta continued on down to the basement and along the corridor to the meeting room. It was empty. Well that's no surprise he thought.

"Somebody was here," said Allonon his head Jaffa. "Look!"

Allonon, with two other Jaffa, had preceded the Goa'uld into the room. He was now pointing up at the slowly fading witch light that was still giving illumination although there was no sign of the witch who had lit it.

"She's got what she wanted," said Ninurta. "Much good will it do her. How long will it be before the bomb goes off?"

"Just under an hour," said Allonon.

"Could you trigger it now?" asked Ninurta.

"We can certainly try my lord," replied Allonon. "Or would you prefer that we wait until we know the witch and the girl are together? That was the original plan. The timer is there in case our transmissions are blocked by this witch magic."

"No, stick to the original plan," ordered Ninurta. "If you find out they're together set it off straight away. If not then let the timer do it and we'll hope for the worst. You're sure the girl doesn't know it's inside her?"

"Quite certain my lord," replied Allonon. "We took all the necessary precautions."

"Good, let's get out of here and finish off our other preparations," said Ninurta. "Just in case that witch survives the explosion."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Maybourne pulled out his gun and pointed it at the vampire. "I didn't agree to any vampire being involved, if that's what he really is," he said.

"Bullets don't stop vampires," said Lilah. "You'll only annoy him. Put your gun away."

The vampire gave a confident grin, clearly not at all scared by the gun and abruptly his face changed to something quite inhuman with long teeth. Suddenly Maybourne had no doubt this was indeed a vampire. He switched his aim to Lilah. "How about lawyers? If that... thing moves any closer to me or her you're dead."

"We're on the same side colonel," said Lilah signalling the vampire to remain where he was. "We have to work together. The vampire can get us the information we need."

"I'm not working with a vampire," said Maybourne. "Is that what she meant by losing my soul? I think if I work with you for much longer I won't have a soul to lose."

"Don't be silly," replied Lilah with a smile. "You're working for National Security. You must have lost your soul a long time ago. You have to use whatever will work. You know that."

"I don't think so," said Maybourne. "And I'm gonna make sure there are no vampires in the NID. I'm taking the girl out of here now. Move away from the door."

"You don't have to worry about infiltration by vampires," said Lilah. "Most of them are too restricted and arrogant to make good undercover agents. Sticking to a nine to five after you've become immortal is just about impossible. But if you want to leave, I'm not going to stop you."

As she spoke Lilah moved towards the other side of the room. At her signal the vampire went with her. "We can still work together you know," she said. "Give me a call. When you're stuck and can't get any further give me a call."

Maybourne took Dawn's arm and led her from the room. Outside the room he put his gun hand in his pocket but kept his grip on the gun. Still with his other hand on Dawn's arm he led her quickly to the nearby staircase.

Pulling Dawn along with him Maybourne rushed down the stairs all the way to the basement car park and then led the way to his car. They saw a couple of men on the stairs and a woman getting out of her car in the basement but nobody challenged them.

They got into Maybourne's car and he started up and drove slowly towards the exit. Still no hue and cry. The barrier was down at the exit but it lifted as Maybourne drove up to it. All the way from the office neither Maybourne nor Dawn had spoken. As he entered the traffic Maybourne broke the silence.

"Look kid, I want to know what you know but I'm not having anything to do with vampires," he said. "Nothing like that. I do work for National Security. That's all I'm concerned with. Help me out here."

"So where exactly do you think you're taking me?" asked Dawn who had still, despite everything, remained very calm.

"We're going to my office," said Maybourne. "You'll be safe there, vampires or no vampires. Don't worry, you won't be harmed, but you will tell me what I need to know. After that you can go back home."

"Not bad," said Dawn. "Seven out of ten I'd say."

"What?" said Maybourne giving Dawn a brief glance before turning his attention back to the road.

"The good guy, bad guy routine. I suppose next you give me a cookie and a cup of coffee, maybe with a little something added, and then I'll tell you everything you want to know," said Dawn.

"How did you get to be this cynical?" asked Maybourne. "You can't honestly believe I agreed to work with that vampire. But I do work for National Security so you should be helping me anyway. We should be on the same side."

"Yes we should shouldn't we?" said Dawn. "National Security! Hah, you guys should try living in Sunnydale for a while, or Sunnydale the way it used to be."

"And how did it used to be?" asked Maybourne.

"Scary," said Dawn. "If we only had vampires to worry about it was a good day. But we took care of most of that. Anyway I don't care if you're still working with Lilah or not. I'm afraid I don't have time for any more games. I'm wanted elsewhere." As she spoke Dawn looked up as if listening to a voice that nobody else could hear.

Before Maybourne could reply Dawn turned into a shower of lights and disappeared completely from the seat by his side. Maybourne would have been dumbfounded but he was becoming used to magical appearances and disappearances. Oh yes, no special powers he thought. Well Miss Lilah Morgan you don't know as much as you think you do.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wesley looked around him. The room was dark with just a little light coming in from a window on the other side of the room. He had just woken up and found himself lying fully dressed on an unfamiliar bed. He sat up and tried to gather his thoughts.

He remembered being in the hotel, the Kallistian hotel in their capital city Demantine. They had moved to Eve's room because it had more natural light on that side of the building and that might have been important in the study of the book. Now it looked like he was in another hotel room, a different and much smaller room. Perhaps a different hotel. The general decor didn't look at all like the Kallistian style that he had recently become used to. It looked like, well exactly like a hotel room back on Earth.

Wesley got off the bed and switched on the nearby light. He then made his way over to the window and pulled the curtain. He looked down on a quiet street below. It was late at night, a car passed, and then another, splashing through the driving rain. He was certainly no longer on Kallistien. Was he really back on Earth?

The door behind him opened and he turned to see that Eve had come into the room. By now he had put his thoughts in order. His last memory had been sitting at a table in the Kallistian hotel room opening the Wolfram and Hart book. The only person who had been with him had been Eve who had stood behind him looking at the book over his shoulder.

"Are you alright?" asked Eve.

Wesley ignored the question. "So it was a Wolfram and Hart trap after all," he said. "Where are we and what's going on? What exactly are you up to?"

"I don't know any more than you do," said Eve. "I woke up in the room next door. I called down to the front desk. We're back in LA. I don't know how or why."

"But you did know I was in this room?" asked Wesley sceptically.

"The guy on the phone told me where you were," said Eve. "We were booked into adjoining rooms about eight hours ago."

"By whom?" asked Wesley.

"That's what I asked," replied Eve. "The guy down there doesn't know. He says the guy on during the day might remember."

"And he'll only remember what Wolfram and Hart want him to remember," said Wesley. As he spoke the conviction grew within Wesley that Eve was playing him in some way. She'd probably been up to something all along and he was fed up with it. Abruptly he headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Eve.

"To see a man about a dog," said Wesley as he left the room and slammed the door behind him.

"Huh?" was Eve's response to the empty room.

Wesley went down the stairs all the way to the front entrance. He ignored the man at the front desk and went out into the street. What he needed was a public phone, somewhere he could call Fred or Lorne or even the people left in Sunnydale.

After two blocks Wesley found a phone box. But despite no sign of any vandalism the phone didn't work, it was completely dead. He left the box and for the first time had a good look around him. Perhaps he could find a cab or recognise which part of town it was.

Suddenly Wesley recognised the cafe on the corner. That was only a short walk from where he lived. The shop two doors away from the cafe, that was where he often bought a morning paper and that...

Wait a minute thought Wesley this is crazy. The shop and the cafe were in opposite directions from where he lived. They weren't on the same street. What's going on?

As he stood and wondered Wesley gradually realised that other things were odd as well. Two men who had just walked past him had turned and walked back the way they had come. As he watched they reached the end of the street and once more reversed themselves. They seemed to be devoted to simply marching up and down the same street.

Then he started recognising the passing cars. There was not much traffic so it was quite easy to recognise the same vehicles going round and round the block but getting nowhere. As Wesley continued to look he realised that everybody he could see was in a repetitive routine. The whole place looked something like a large film studio with extras passing back and forth to give the right background, but nobody was really going anywhere.


	31. The Gathering Storm

**Chapter Thirty One: The Gathering Storm**

Kennedy and Gwen arrived at the Kallistien witch HQ just as the enemy attack began. The attack combined a Jaffa assault with the use of magic. As the two women ran up the steps to the main entrance of the building a whole series of magic portals opened in the street behind them and Jaffa began to jump through and open fire with their staff weapons.

The guards on duty at the front of the building dropped to the ground and began using their guns to return fire but they were quickly outnumbered by the large number of Jaffa that continued to arrive and they started to take casualties.

"Get inside!" shouted a woman, a witch standing in the front entrance to the building. "Get inside the protections of the building!" Either the witch's own magic was protecting her or the magic spells on the building were strong enough to deal with the fire from the staff weapons because two staff weapon blasts directed straight at her had no affect.

Kennedy and Gwen were now inside the building and they were followed inside by the surviving guards from outside. By now others within the building, guards and witches alike had rushed to the front of the building to defend the doors and windows.

"This is a diversion," shouted Kennedy to the witch inside the entrance, trying to make herself heard above the noise of the fighting. "Cordy had a vision. They're gonna be opening magic portals inside the building as well."

"The whole building's protected," the witch shouted back. "They can't possibly get in here."

"Well Cordy says they can," said Kennedy. "They must have a lot more power or a lot more witches than you think they do."

"And a lot more technology," said Gwen.

Kennedy and Gwen started to rush towards the main stairs and the witch followed them. "But we just heard the attack on the spaceship was successful," she said. "Marduk's been captured."

"Maybe this attack's coming from that other Goa'uld," said Gwen. By now Kennedy had disappeared at high speed upstairs.

"He's got witches as well and according to the Stargate people a much bigger army," added Gwen. "We haven't won this war yet."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Glory was now in a rage. "It was them, I know it was them," she shouted. "Your friends! They came here just to observe they said but now they're playing games. They're going to mess everything up. Why would they do that?"

Glory had realised that Lissie had been removed by magical means from Ninurta's custody pretty well as soon as it happened. Seeing no point in going through with the meeting and realising that the Goa'uld would blame her for Lissie's disappearance Glory had teleported away with Daniel before Ninurta and his Jaffa reached the room.

"You know why," said Daniel. "It's you who've been trying to change things. They've acted to stop you, to try to make sure things stay the same as they were."

"But they don't know the way things were. That's why they're here, why you're here, to find out," asked Glory. "They don't know I was changing things. I always intended to get hold of Lissie before the final ceremony."

"No you didn't," said Daniel. "You thought that first ceremony would be enough to charge the Key. You didn't have the Keeper then. This is something you've thought up since the first ceremony went wrong."

"Of course it is," said Glory. "But the first ceremony would have gone wrong anyway. You didn't cause that and I would have gotten hold of Lissie before doing another one. It's the logical next step."

"But you wouldn't have had me to use in your negotiations," said Daniel. "You couldn't have offered me to the Goa'uld. That's different."

"You're just convenient," said Glory. "I would have thought of something else."

"Well if my companions heard about you offering to exchange me for Lissie you can't blame them for trying to stop you. They probably expected you to go through with it," said Daniel. "Why don't you tell me the real reason why you've been trying to change things? You must know any change puts everything at risk. It puts you at risk. It's no good blaming my companions when you're doing the same thing yourself."

Glory looked at Daniel and shook her head. "You don't know what you're talking about," she said. "Anyway you wouldn't understand."

"Perhaps I would. I know a lot about ancient myths and legends. Some of the old myths where I come from are stories about various characters trying to avoid bad prophecies," said Daniel. "But everything they do to avoid what's been predicted from coming true just makes it more and more possible for it all to happen anyway. They always make things worse when they try to change them. Don't you think you might make matters worse by trying to change them? The more you try to improve things the worse they get?"

"Look, if I didn't try to...," began Glory. "Oh never mind, what difference does it make anyway?"

"Difference to what?" asked Daniel. "What're you talking about?"

"You don't know much about magic do you?" asked Glory.

"Nope. I didn't even believe in magic until recently," replied Daniel.

"But you know what a portent is, what it means to take an augury?" she asked.

"It means you're trying to get a handle on what's going to happen in the future," said Daniel.

"Something like that," replied Glory. "And what do you think the auguries showed for our plans to get rid of the Goa'uld?"

"That they would succeed?" asked Daniel.

"Huh, you really don't know magic at all," said Glory. "You never get a simple yes or no answer to something like that."

"Yes, there used to be oracles back on my home world," said Daniel. "They usually managed to word their answers in such a way that they had a get out, even when it looked like they got it wrong."

"You come from another world as well as the future?" asked Glory surprised.

"Um, please forget I said that," said Daniel. "It doesn't make any difference anyway."

Glory stared briefly at Daniel but didn't pursue the point. "Well the auguries we got said we had a chance of success for the plan if we did the ceremony as soon as possible. Well we did it and it didn't work out. Maybe we should have been quicker. After that the prediction is that anybody who uses the Key would get rid of the Goa'uld but they might not survive the experience, probably wouldn't survive the experience."

"So you think having Lissie join in the ceremony will help you survive?" asked Daniel.

"It's not that," said Glory. "The augury went on to say they might not survive because the second use of the Key could swallow up the world. With the Keeper we've got a chance to keep the Key under control. Without her none of us might survive."

"But we came from the future so you know the world survives," said Daniel.

"Not if I don't get Lissie," said Glory. "As I said, it was always my intention to get hold of Lissie before trying again. So what do you think I should do now Mister know-it-all Daniel from another world in the future? Why shouldn't I track down your friends and show them why they shouldn't mess with me?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I don't know what he's got planned but he's definitely planning a double cross," said Lissie. "Whatever he said to Glory he's got no intention of betraying Mitra. It's all a set up by Mitra and Ninurta."

"And I suppose you were in a good position to know all this," asked Faith. "You being a prisoner and all?"

"I can read people pretty well," said Lissie. "It wasn't anything he or his people said. Anyway everybody in Goa'uld country knows Ninurta's going to be Mitra's viceroy on Kallistien when the war against the witches is over. He's a Goa'uld. Everybody knows they're evil. You don't mean you trust him?"

"Don't look at me," said Faith. "I don't trust anybody, including you."

Paige had orbed her sisters, together with Faith and Lissie back to what had now become their headquarters deep in the forest. They had discovered a chalet that seemed to be unoccupied. Judging by the dust around the place it had been unoccupied for quite some time.

After a little magical clean up of the building the four Earthwomen had questioned the teenager. She explained that she had been arrested by the Goa'uld because of her status as the hereditary Keeper of the Key. In recent months the Goa'uld had rounded up anybody who might be any sort of political or religious leader and killed any witch they could lay their hands on. Maybe that included the owner of the chalet.

"So how do we stop him then?" began Piper. "Because if you're right..."

Prue held up her hand for Piper to stop talking. "Could we have a word in private? We need to talk this through," she said. "Could you stay here please," she added to Lissie. "We won't be long."

We've talked about this before," said Prue when the four women had gathered in the next room. They had left the door open in order to keep an eye on Lissie while they talked. "We're not here to stop the Goa'uld ourselves, no matter how tempted we are. Lissie might be right about Ninurta but we've got to stay out of it."

"We've got to get her to talk about the Key as much as possible," said Paige. "The more we know about it the better. Especially if we have to use it in the future."

"There's no way, no way in the world Buffy will ever let you use Dawn," said Faith. "You're sisters. You should know how she feels."

"Of course," said Prue. "But knowing more about the Key can't hurt and it might just help. But we've got to be careful what we say to Lissie."

"Because she'll still be here after we return to the future?" asked Piper. "Or do you simply not trust her?"

"It's not just that," said Prue. "Although we shouldn't trust her or tell her any more than we have to. It's not impossible she's under some sort of control. She might even have one of those parasites inside her."

"We can do something about that," said Faith holding up the amulet that was on a chain around her neck. "This'll break any conditioning and I can take it back afterwards."

"Yes, do that," agreed Prue. "But there's something else. These Goa'uld, even back here in the past, have a lot of high tech. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Lissie's bugged in some way. The Goa'uld might be able to listen in to anything we say to her and they could have some sort of locator on her. We should check her out and remove any devices and then move somewhere else straight away."

"I can take care of that," said Paige who turned and led the way back into the other room. "And I'll take care of any parasite at the same time."

Once in the other room Paige used her power. "Parasites! Gadgets! Devices! Bugs! High tech-thingies!" she commanded as she concentrated on Lissie. At the same time she swept her arm to one side to dispose of any such items out of the window.

As the Earthwomen and the surprised teenager watched, three items, two no larger than a watch battery but one of them as large as a small cellphone materialised on the way out of the window. There was however no Goa'uld symbiote amongst the items magicked away from Lissie.

"Good call Prue," said Faith. "But perhaps we'd better have a look at them before we go." Faith started over towards the window but as she did there was an explosion from outside which shattered the window and caved in that wall of the building. Faith was thrown across the room like a rag doll.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With the fighting for the spaceship over Buffy and Angel had found their usefulness at an end. They took the first opportunity they had had to do a little sightseeing around the orbiting spaceship, finally returning to the Control Center. There they sought out Jack. They had decided to return to the surface. Jack agreed that there appeared to be no reason for them to stay aboard the spaceship any longer.

After the battle in the Control Center Jack had taken command of the ship. At his suggestion Jagerat, the host now freed from control of the Goa'uld Marduk, had issued orders whilst pretending to still be Marduk. Jagerat had ordered Marduk's Jaffa to surrender and accept orders from the ship's invaders. He was now contacting Marduk's surface forces to order their surrender as well.

"We've had confirmation from all areas," said Jack. "We've got full control of the ship. Teal'c has gone to arrange for most of the Jaffa to be transported down to the surface. We're keeping some of them temporarily to help keep the ship running until we have enough of our own people in place. Teal'c will try to recruit as many of the Jaffa as possible to voluntarily join the fight against the Goa'uld."

"We'll be going then. If we can drag Xander away that is," said Buffy. Xander had spent all of the time since he had been healed by Tara in staring at the sights that could be seen from the windows of the control room. This included the planet of Kallistien, which the ship was orbiting, and its moons.

"We can also find out why Cordy needs Tara's help," said Willow from her position next to Sam at the control console from where she had been listening to the conversation.

Willow and Sam had together arranged for a gradual flip of the ship's gravity back to normal, making sure to keep everybody aboard informed of what they were doing so as to avoid further injuries. Sam had then sat in the main control chair and was familiarising herself with all of the ship's controls.

Willow had sat in the seat next to Sam and had gradually released the ship from the magical constraints that she had placed upon it. All the constraints that is except the no-weapons spell. Everybody agreed that it was still valuable to have that spell in force on the ship. Willow had been tempted to stay and spend more time learning about the ship but concern about what Tara was doing was her first priority so she intended returning to the planet with the others.

Phoebe and Giles were currently talking to the witches that had been released from Goa'uld control. They had all come from Earth. They all remembered what had happened to them but only now had they realised that they had been placed under control and had not been acting of their own free will.

"We've received acknowledgments from Marduk's other ships," said Sam from her place at the control console. "We have teams in control of them as well."

"How many ships did Marduk have then?" asked Angel.

"Five in the immediate vicinity, including this one," said Sam. "But the others are nothing like as big as this. The rest of his fleet had to leave recently to deal with other attacks from Apophis."

"Would Marduk's ships be those lights over there? They seem to be moving." asked Xander from his position at the very front of the control room where his nose had been all but glued to the window. Xander was pointing at a small cluster of lights from straight ahead. A cluster that seemed to increase in number and size as they watched.

"Over there?" asked Sam looking at the lights and then back to her control console a few times. "Can't be, there are too many of them." Sam continued to cross check. "No, it's not Marduk's other ships. It's another fleet altogether, and you know what that means?" the last comment being addressed to Jack.

"Apophis?" asked Jack although he already knew the answer. "It's always Apophis. That guy's got the most amazing timing."

"Yeah," said Sam. "It's Apophis's fleet all right. And it looks like he's got a much bigger fleet than Marduk. I don't think this is a coincidence do you?"

"You think he's got spies amongst Marduk's people?" asked Buffy.

"Of course he has," replied Jack. "I bet he's been waiting for us to attack Marduk before making his move. I bet the absence of Marduk's other ships is all part of his plan. He must have arranged some sort of diversion to draw them away."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wesley looked around him. The room was dark with just a little light coming in from a window on the other side of the room. He had just woken up and found himself lying fully dressed on an unfamiliar bed. He sat up and tried to gather his thoughts.

This was all very familiar. He'd done this before. He had woken up in just this bed, in just this room, not long ago. What on earth was going on? He remembered being in this very room back on Earth, back in LA.

Wesley turned the light on, made his way over to the window and pulled the curtain. He looked down on a quiet street below. It was late at night, a car passed, and then another, splashing through the driving rain. Exactly the same as before, the same cars as far as he could remember. Somebody was playing games, Wolfram and Hart were playing games. This couldn't really be LA.

The door behind him opened and he turned to see that Eve had come into the room. Exactly like the last time. Was she affected too or was she part of whatever it was Wolfram and Hart were up to?

"Are you alright?" asked Eve.

"Oh yeah," said Wesley. "Just like I was last time. Don't you ever knock? And what's going on, what are your people up to?"

"My people? Whatever you may think this is nothing to do with me. I'm just as much a victim here as you are," said Eve. "We seem to be in a loop, a time loop. I bet we're not supposed to remember each time. It might be a way Wolfram and Hart have of keeping somebody on ice until they're ready for them, although I've never heard of anything like it before."

"Or maybe it's a way of keeping somebody out of circulation permanently?" asked Wesley.

"If they wanted you out of the way permanently they'd be trying to kill you," said Eve.

"Not necessarily," disagreed Wesley. "Some people can speak to the dead. Killing somebody isn't always the best way to keep a secret, Wolfram and Hart must know that. Or it might be they just want to keep us out of circulation for a while until they're ready to make their next move."

"If it's a secret, what secret?" asked Eve. "What could possibly justify all of this?"

"If I knew that..." began Wesley.

"It wouldn't be a secret," finished Eve.

"Anyway if I knew a big important secret what makes you think I'd tell you?" asked Wesley. "You're the one who said I shouldn't tell anybody anything unless they needed to know it. Well I'm not gonna trust you any farther than I have to."

"Fine," said Eve. "Keep your secrets, if you think they're still secrets. But if we want to find a way out of this we're gonna have to work together."


	32. Fighting on Several Fronts

**Chapter Thirty Two: Fighting on Several Fronts**

"I'll try a healing but I'm not convinced what's happened to you is the same as suffering an injury or catching a disease," said Tara. Tara had orbed to join Cordelia in response to her call. Cordelia had explained about what had happened with the Wolfram and Hart book and the demon transformation infection as well as the disappearance of Wesley and Eve. Tara told Cordelia about the successful outcome to the attack on Marduk's spaceship.

"You'd better not touch me," said Cordelia. "You might not be immune to whatever it is yourself. I don't want you to turn into a demon."

"I'll try a healing anyway," replied Tara. "I don't actually have to touch you to do one. Hold out your hands please."

Cordelia held out her hands, palms up and Tara held out her own hands, palms down a few inches above them. She concentrated on feeding her Whitelighter healing power into Cordelia through her hands. Finally she put her hands above Cordelia's head and then slowly moved them down to the ground, making sure to apply healing to Cordelia's whole body, head to toe, before finishing.

"Thanks," said Cordelia. "I feel fine. But then I felt fine before you did anything. Do you know if it worked?"

"No, I don't," said Tara. "But there's something else I want to try as well. First we'd better destroy that wand in case you're right about the wand spreading the infection."

"I'm sure I can do that myself," said Cordelia and she started to gather her glow power inside her.

"Make sure your power only goes in one direction," said Tara. "Away from you. Don't let any of it flow back to you. That way it shouldn't be able to change you into a demon or re-infect you."

Cordelia concentrated and then sent a fast burst of power at the wand. She immediately cut if off and protected herself from any back blast. The wand burst into flames and was quickly consumed. Not even ashes were left behind, just a small burnt patch on the tiled floor.

"OK," said Cordelia. "So far so good. What next? Any ideas about how to find Wesley and Eve?"

"Before we think about them there's something else I'd like to do," said Tara. "What happened seems to be something like a curse, a curse that gets passed onto others. Old spell books sometimes contain witches' curses. That might be what happened this time. I'd like to try a spell to make sure any curse has really gone. Sit down on the floor, over there away from the torn up pieces of the book."

Cordelia did as Tara directed. Tara then found a crayon on the nearby desk and drew a pentagram on the floor around Cordelia but did not complete it. She left one corner unfinished. "That's to allow the curse spirit to get out," explained Tara.

Tara didn't have any magical supplies with her so she had decided to try a Halliwell type spell and adapt the curse release spell that she already knew into a rhyming chant in an effort to increase its power. She went through the wording several times, muttering some of it out loud but never completing it so as not to invoke the magic prematurely.

"Do you want me to join in?" asked Cordelia. "Will that double up the magic power?"

"We'd better not risk it," said Tara. "You're the one who's been infected. If there is still a curse spirit inside you I need you to be ready to complete the pentagram as soon as the spirit has been expelled. It can't exist for long on its own. If you complete it quickly after the curse has been expelled the pentagram should protect us until the spirit fades away."

Tara began the chant, at the same time walking around Cordelia, but being careful to remain within the pentagram. If she had had supplies of the right herbs available Tara would have scattered them over Cordelia. In their absence the circling served the same purpose of making Cordelia the focus of the spell.

As Tara completed her first circle Cordelia felt a sudden and brief chill. Well something's happening she thought. The second circle caused Cordelia to feel a sudden and intense flush. The third circle brought things to a climax. Cordelia shuddered all through her body as if she was being vibrated by a road drill and then she was back to normal.

"Quick!" ordered Tara. "The pentagram. Complete it"

Cordelia leant forward and drew in the last piece of the pentagram with the crayon that Tara had passed on to her for just that purpose. She then started to get to her feet but had only reached her knees when she found herself hugged tightly from behind by Tara.

"Stay still!" ordered Tara. "Look!"

On the other side of the pentagram, floating at about head height, was a small black cloud. A cloud that seemed to have a face in it. As Cordelia looked, the face became uglier and uglier in fact it became the quite frightening face of a demon. Suddenly the cloud darted forward straight at the two witches.

Cordelia flinched. She might have flinched backwards right out of the pentagram, which was probably what the curse spirit intended but Tara stopped her moving at all. She held firm to Cordelia as the black cloud came up against the barrier of the pentagram and recoiled back.

After that it was a question of waiting for the cloud to fade away. It launched several more attacks, some of them accompanied by a high pitched wailing, but each attack was weaker than the last and none of them were able to penetrate the pentagram. Gradually the cloud thinned, finally it faded away altogether. At last all was quiet, no more curse spirit and no more wailing.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kennedy arrived in the main witch council chamber just as a magic portal opened in the middle of the room. At once an armoured Jaffa armed with a staff weapon leapt through. Kennedy went into attack mode at once.

The Jaffa landed and began to level his weapon at the nearest targets, three witches who were getting to their feet from their position at the conference table. He only became aware of the fast arriving Kennedy at the last moment just before her flying kick hammered into the closed helmet on his head. The Jaffa was knocked across the room unconscious to crash up against the wall.

The next enemy had already arrived. Kennedy, from her position on the floor took his feet out by seizing and swinging the staff weapon dropped by the first Jaffa. She then used the staff, end on to knock out her second opponent by hammering it into his metal helmet.

So far Kennedy had successfully dealt with the Jaffa as quickly as they arrived and she might have been able to continue doing so had there been only one portal but Jaffa were now arriving elsewhere in the building as well as continuing to arrive in the street outside.

But Kennedy was not alone. Her intervention had given the Kallistien witches in the room the chance to contribute to the defence. As Kennedy launched her attack against the third Jaffa to arrive one of the witches darted forward and threw a glowing ball of light through the portal to wherever the Jaffa were coming from.

A flash of light came from the other side of the portal and the portal abruptly winked out. The magical device had found its target which presumably was the witch or witches who had opened and were maintaining that particular portal on behalf of the Goa'uld. Meanwhile Kennedy wasted no time in disposing of her third opponent with a brutal low kick followed by rapid blows from the staff weapon that she continued to use as a fighting staff.

But all this was only one small fight in a much larger battle. Kennedy could hear the sounds of fighting, shouting and maybe dying coming from elsewhere in the building. After a quick check to make sure the three Jaffa would remain out for the count for some time to come she decided to leave the room to contribute to the defence elsewhere.

As Kennedy paused in the doorway she realised that there was one thing notably absent from all the noises of fighting coming from elsewhere. Something that might just give them a real chance to hold off the attack. There were no sounds of weapon fire inside the building, none of the distinctive staff weapon blasts.

That must mean the spell to prevent weapons working inside the witch HQ was still holding. The fact that the Jaffa were armed might mean they were unaware of this part of the defence. Or it might mean that the enemy witches had plans to try to counteract that spell. If I see any enemy witches they're target number one thought Kennedy.

Outside on the stairs and in the nearby rooms there were hand to hand struggles going on. The Jaffa had the numbers and the combat training but those witches who had not been surprised by the first attack were now using their magic against the invaders. Before Kennedy made up her mind as to where she was most needed one of the witches in the room behind her called out.

"Hold the door!" commanded the witch. "Stop any more of them coming in! If you give us time to strengthen the defences we can stop all this. We can close down all the portals and stop any more opening." A brief glance behind her showed Kennedy the three witches, sat cross-legged on the floor in a small circle holding hands. Now they began to chant.

So long as the Jaffa can't fire their weapons I can keep them out thought Kennedy. And being Jaffa, armoured Jaffa, they can take quite a bit of punishment she thought with relish. No need to be too gentle, not that she had been at all gentle so far. As she thought this a fresh opponent appeared from the room opposite.

Kennedy ducked right and stopped her new opponent dead with a smashing blow to the head from her staff. As he staggered back she moved in close and grabbed him by his armour in order to toss him down the stairs where he crashed into another two Jaffa coming up from the floor below, propelling all three down the stairs.

Now Kennedy could hear the sound of firing, but not weapon fire. The sound was not alarming, quite the contrary. Kennedy had heard Gwen use her electric power before. Now, from not very far away, probably the next floor down, she was hitting and taking down targets. Metal armour won't be any protection against Gwen thought Kennedy.

But Kennedy had no time for further thought. New opponents appeared from her right while behind in the conference room the Kallistien witches continued their chanting.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"There's another one," said Gunn from his seat looking at the CCTV monitors in the control room of the Sunnydale Slayer HQ. "All the ones I've seen look human but that don't mean much. They might be vampires, the NID or even Wolfram and Hart goons."

Ever since the warning signals had started going off about an hour before, most of the people present at the Slayer HQ had crowded into the control room to find out what was going on. They had discovered that the premises were being watched. The Slayer HQ had been surrounded by shadowy figures on all sides. Gunn had been able to identify more and more of these apparently human figures as he studied the security monitors. The numbers had steadily increased during the time he had been watching.

Hostile intent was assumed because somebody had done something to isolate the HQ from contact with the outside world. The land-line telephone was dead and everybody's cellphone just produced an interference noise. Internet access had also been stopped. Even the telecommunication equipment of the SGC team on the premises had been blocked somehow and that had a satellite link. Amy and Anya were currently elsewhere in the building seeing if they could break through the interference by using magic.

"Well they won't get in here," said Dawn. "Not with all the defences we've got. I'd like to see them try."

"I'm gonna dial up the Gate," said Fred. "It won't do any harm to have another way out available if we need it, just in case."

"You can't keep a Gate open indefinitely," said Major Janice Larkham who was currently in command of the SGC detachment keeping watch on the Sunnydale Stargate.

"I know that," said Fred. "But we can always redial straight away if we have to. I'd just like to keep it open as much as possible. If this is Wolfram and Hart we're dealing with they wouldn't be out there if they didn't have a plan to get past our defences."

"They must want Dawn awfully bad," said Connor. "After what happened at the school and then again when Jenny pretended to be Dawn you'd think they'd give up. They've obviously got big plans for the Key. Pity Jenny couldn't hang around. She'd give us another way out."

"Why don't we all go through the Gate and join Buffy and the others now anyway," said Dawn. "They won't be able to follow us there, or if they did we'd have a lot of help."

"And leave this Gate unguarded at this end? I don't think so," said Major Larkham. "That might be just what they're after."

"Wasn't it you who keep insisting we keep guarding this Gate because it might be the only way for your sister and the others to get home?" asked Gunn.

"Oh yeah," said Dawn disappointed. But when is it going to be my turn to visit another world she thought. Why should Buffy have all the fun again?

"You can't dial up the Gate your friends used anyway," said Major Larkham who had been kept fully informed by General Hammond of what was happening at the SGC. "If everything's on track that Gate is currently being kept linked to the SGC as much as possible. You'll get the busy signal. And even if you did get through you might find yourself in the middle of a big battle."

"Out of the frying pan into the fire so to speak," said Fred. "There must be somewhere else we could go if we really had to. Where do you suggest we dial?" asked Fred.

"Well we have a couple of off world bases that..." began the Major.

"You know what I think," interrupted Gunn who was still studying the screens in front of him. "The way they're spread around the perimeter. I don't think they're getting ready to attack. I think they're trying to keep everybody in, trying to stop us leaving. It looks more like a siege than an assault."

"Why would they do that?" asked Connor who moved forward to study the screens over Gunn's shoulder.

"Militarily I can think of two reasons," said Major Larkham. "Either they're waiting for more reinforcements before attacking or they intend dropping something on us and blowing us away where we sit. Just how good are your defences?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Tell them to get out of here," said Jack. "They can't make a difference to this battle but they could be a big help back on Earth. We can learn a lot from those ships. Tell them to take their ships to Earth and report to General Hammond there."

Jack's order was directed to Sergeant Paisley who was now in charge of communications on the bridge of the captured spaceship. Jack had decided that even if the prize crews now controlling the rest of Marduk's fleet were able to operate their ships effectively in battle there was no point in throwing them against Apophis's much larger fleet. It would be a waste of lives and hardware.

"Won't you upset the Kallistians by doing that?" asked Sam. "They may want those ships themselves. They may think they're entitled to them."

"We can talk to the Kallistians about the ships later," said Jack. "But if they stay here nobody will have them. Apophis will blow them apart, and our people along with them. Anyway I don't think the Kallistians have people who can deal with that level of technology."

"But you intend to fight Apophis with this single ship?" asked Angel. Angel, Buffy and Xander had so far found themselves to be without a role in running the captured ship but they were still in the Control Center of the flagship ready to help if they were needed.

"I'm hoping the guys next door can do something to help us," said Jack. "Otherwise we're in for a tough time."

Willow, Phoebe and Giles were currently in the room next door working with the witches who had previously been working for Marduk. Jack didn't know what they were working on but hoped it would be something that would give them an edge in the coming battle.

"Message coming in from the Goa'uld fleet," said Sergeant Paisley.

"Put it on the loud speaker," ordered Jack.

"I am Apophis," said the voice of Apophis. "All who hear this should know that Marduk is no more. The shell of what he once was still walks but he is not your god Marduk. The one claiming to be Marduk is a false god."

"How did he find that out so quickly?" asked Sam.

"Magic?" suggested Jack sarcastically. Sam directed a frown towards Jack. I'd better stop doing that thought Jack or Sam's going to find some way to get back at me before long.

"Everybody hearing this should pledge their loyalty to me as their god," continued Apophis. "The men, women and children on Marduk's home worlds are now under my control and have pledged their loyalty to me. All Jaffa formerly in the service of Marduk will have an honoured place in my service. Those who resist, together with their families, will be treated as enemies and will be executed." The transmission ended.

"That's pretty clear," said Buffy to Jack. "He wants all of Marduk's people to work for him otherwise he kills their families. What a nice guy. D'you think he'll do it."

"If he's really taken over Marduk's home worlds he's probably already started the killing," said Jack. "He'll do it all right. It's exactly what any Goa'uld in his position would do, and Apophis is pretty bad, even for a Goa'uld. The Jaffa know it."

"That message is being broadcast and re-broadcast all the time," said Sergeant Paisley. "Anybody on the planet with a radio will be able to pick it up."

"Tell Teal'c what's going on," ordered Jack. "And get him to get Jagerat to send out more messages pretending to be Marduk. That message might just rebound on Apophis. A lot of Marduk's Jaffa won't like it one bit." Teal'c and Jagerat were currently working together elsewhere in the ship to ensure that all of Marduk's Jaffa got the message that they should surrender and cooperate with the Kallistians.

Buffy felt a tap on her arm from behind her. She turned to find Willow there signalling her to follow. Buffy followed Willow into the next room where Phoebe, Giles and the other witches were working. Angel and Xander, seeing what was happening quickly followed.

"It looks like there's going to be some sort of space battle soon," said Willow.

"Yeah," interrupted Xander. "I wonder where the phaser controls are."

Willow ignored the interruption. "And we've got to stop it if we can. I can't see our side wining a fight against all those other ships without some sort of magical help. I think we should lend a hand."


	33. Under Pressure

**Chapter Thirty Three: Under Pressure**

"We need to find out more about what happened," said Tara. "I suppose that means making some sense of this Wolfram and Hart book and how it came to be ripped apart."

"Or going back to the Wolfram and Hart offices and asking a few tough questions," suggested Cordelia. And if I find Eve there she'll certainly have a few tough questions to answer she thought. I never trusted her. I bet she's got something to do with all this.

"Let's start with the book," said Tara circling around the scattered debris of the book lying on the floor. "It was like this when you entered the room?"

"Uh huh," agreed Cordelia. "Do you think it's safe to gather up the pieces?" Cordelia asked but she sounded very doubtful when she said it. "It might help if we could put as much of it back together as we possibly can."

"Better not touch any pieces." said Tara. "We shouldn't take any unnecessary chances. Anyway I think I know a better way to find out what was in the book."

"You know a way to put the book back together with magic?" asked Cordelia.

"No, but I think we can do something even better," said Tara smiling.

"One of those spells to review the past?" asked Cordelia. "We've got to find out what happened to Wesley and Eve as well as sorting out this demon change thing."

"Maybe later, when Willow's here to help," said Tara, "if we really need to. But it might be difficult without either Wesley or Eve around to be part of the spell. No, what I have in mind is a sort of magical snatch. As you know time travel's possible so this book still exists in the past before it was torn apart. What we can try to do is use magic to snatch the book from a slice of time in the past. It'll mean that for an instant in the past the book will cease to exist and we'll have a copy of it in the here and now."

"But won't we then only have it for an instant of time?" asked Cordelia. "As I understand it you don't get something for nothing, even with magic."

"That's the tricky bit," said Tara. "We need one spell to snatch it from the past and another spell to produce a copy of it before it disappears again." She smiled at Cordelia. "Good job we've got two witches." Tara broke off from what she was saying as she was struck by a sudden thought. "Wait a minute."

"What?" asked Cordelia.

"Something Willow told me about. Something that happened before I came to Sunnydale," said Tara. "It was about a demon that had been trapped in a book."

"Don't remember that one," said Cordelia. "Must have been before they roped me into the gang," she added.

"I wonder if that's what this was all about," said Tara. "Wolfram and Hart gave you a book with a demon trapped inside. They expected that when you read the book you'd let the demon out. And that's what happened. Once the demon was out it destroyed the book."

"That sounds like just the sort of thing Wolfram and Hart would do," said Cordelia. "Set loose some mega demon to attack everybody. That might explain the torn up book but it still doesn't explain the changing-into-a-demon infection," said Cordelia.

"No, it might," said Tara. "Some very powerful demons have that sort of power. You used your magic wand on the book. It might have been able to use the power you put into the wand to pass on its curse to you and it might have provided it with enough power to help it escape later when Wesley started reading the book."

"But we destroyed the demon right? So that's the end of that?" asked Cordelia.

"Oh no," said Tara. "We just destroyed the curse spirit. Getting rid of that sort of demon will be much more difficult than that."

So where is it now then?" asked Cordelia looking around. "And where's Wesley and Eve? You don't think Wesley might have been um, torn up or uh eaten by the demon?"

"We need Willow, Willow and Giles, before we do anything else," said Tara, deliberately avoiding answering Cordelia's last question since like Cordelia she feared the worst. "They know a lot more about this sort of thing than I do. I'll go and get them."

"Bring Phoebe along as well if you can. She knows a lot about demons," said Cordelia as Tara orbed away.

It wasn't long before Tara was back, but she didn't have Willow or Phoebe with her. She was however accompanied by Giles. Giles explained that Willow, Buffy, Phoebe and the rest were still busy with the fight against the Goa'uld, something that he couldn't much help with. They were helping SG-1 and the Kallistians to deal with Apophis and his newly arrived space fleet.

"But I do remember about the demon Moloch and the book he was trapped in," said Giles. "I agree with Tara. That's probably the sort of thing we're faced with here." As he spoke Giles had knelt down and examined the pieces of the book scattered on the floor, being careful not to touch any of them. "It certainly looks like it was that sort of book. If you look closely you'll see that there's no writing visible on any of the fragments."

"I think I can remember the spell that was used to trap him but we've got to get hold of another book first, the right sort of book," continued Giles. "We need a fresh book to trap him in again since this one has been destroyed. I expect that's why the demon destroyed it, to stop it being used again."

"Any idea where to find that sort of book?" asked Cordelia.

"Oh yes," said Giles. "Back in England at the Watchers Council. But there may be something suitable nearer to hand."

"The witch HQ?" suggested Cordelia.

"I hear they're under attack at the moment so they're probably too busy to help," said Giles. "A visit to them might be rather hazardous at the moment. I think a trip to the local offices of Wolfram and Hart is our best bet. And at the same time we might find out more about what's going on."

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Paige orbed back to the house near to the point where the explosion had taken place. She had orbed away as the explosion had gone off. It seemed to have been some sort of protective reflex because she couldn't recall any conscious decision to orb.

Her absence had only been brief, just long enough to avoid being caught up in the explosion itself. She was careful to orb back outside and a little away from the building. As she arrived back, the rubble on one side of the building was still settling and a large roof timber fell onto the ground nearby with a crash together with a pile of roof tiles.

"Piper! Prue!" shouted Paige as she rushed around to the other side of the building and inside via the undamaged front door. "Faith" Where are you all? Is everybody alright?"

"Over here!" called Prue. Paige went into the next room and found her eldest sister covered in dust but already using her power to move pieces of debris away and through the large gaping hole in the opposite wall.

"Piper?" asked Paige looking anxiously at Prue.

"She's through there with Lissie," said Prue pointing to the door to the next room. "They're both OK I think. But Faith's under this rubble somewhere. Ah...Piper! I need you, quick!"

Piper came through from the next room in response to Prue's call, Lissie followed behind.

"I think that's Faith over there," said Prue pointing to what could be Faith's shirt showing through a pile of rubble. I'm gonna carefully lift that rubble up off her. When I do you be ready to freeze it to stop any of it falling back down on her."

Paige was about to suggest that she go into the rubble and orb Faith away but she had no time because her sisters now used their powers. With a slow move of her arm Prue slowly lifted up the loose debris that was lying on top of Faith. As soon as she did so Piper froze the whole scene. Paige now rushed forward and took hold of Faith and orbed her outside onto the grass well away from the building. Meanwhile Piper released Lissie from the freeze.

Paige quickly examined Faith and found that she was still alive but unconscious. Prue, Piper and Lissie now hurried outside to join Paige and Faith.

"Orb us all away, quickly as you can!" ordered Prue. "We'll probably have company here soon. I expect the Goa'uld will make a move as soon as their devices stop working."

Even as Prue spoke figures appeared in the woods on the path leading into the clearing containing the chalet. All of the newcomers carried staff weapons and were starting to aim them as Paige orbed them all away.

Paige had decided to orb them all back to the basement of the castle. Except for the secret meetings between Glory and Ninurta it seemed to be unused and so it proved again. They found it to be completely deserted. Prue quickly called a witch light to dispel the total darkness of the area.

Paige had orbed Faith from her position lying in the grass outside the damaged chalet onto the floor of the basement. Now Piper helped her to carefully lift the slayer onto the table in the middle of the room.

"She's unconscious but I think she'll be OK," said Paige standing back after examining Faith. "She seems to be breathing properly. I can't see any major wounds."

"You're a Whitelighter Paige. You should be able to heal like Leo does," said Prue.

"I'm half Whitelighter," replied Paige. "I don't know if that makes a difference because the healing doesn't always work for me. But I'll give it a try."

Paige spent the next few minutes trying to use her healing power but without success. Finally she shook her head and stood back.

"Have you talked to Leo about this?" asked Prue. "Can't he help you get it to work properly?"

"According to Leo it might only work for me in cases of life or death," said Paige. "But not for anything less serious. Or I might just need a lot more practice. Half Whitelighters aren't very common apparently, and half witch, half Whitelighter is very rare. Leo's never met one before."

"Less serious!" said Lissie who had been following the conversation. "She was thrown across the room and buried in the rubble. It looks pretty serious to me. I can go into town and get a healer if you like. You people aren't from around here are you?"

"Faith's a slayer," said Piper who decided to ignore the final question. "They're hard to kill and they heal quickly. From what we were told they can generally recover from anything that doesn't kill them straight away. If Faith's still alive now she's likely to stay that way. She's been through a few tough knocks before and come back OK."

"A slayer!" said Lissie. "A vampire slayer? There really is a vampire slayer?"

"Yes, but please keep it a secret," said Prue with a disapproving glance at Piper. "Please keep everything we say secret. If you don't, only the Goa'uld will benefit. We've got to decide what to do next. Could you please keep an eye on Faith while I talk to my sisters. If she doesn't improve soon we'll take you up on your offer to get a healer."

The three sisters left Lissie and Faith in the room and went into the corridor nearby to talk. "What do you think?" Prue asked her sisters. "Any suggestions about what we do now?"

"I think we must have compromised the timeline big time with all the things we've done since we came back in time," said Piper.

"I agree," said Paige. "I don't see how things can possible be the same after everything that's happened."

"And I calculate the automatic return part of the time travel spell should have cut in by now, but nothing's happened," said Prue. "That means something's gone wrong. The spell not working might be because we've changed the future. That future might no longer exist for us to go back to."

"Or maybe we haven't returned because we haven't yet found out what we came here for," said Piper. "That's the way these things usually work."

"Either way we have to reset things somehow," said Prue. "Any suggestions?"

"Well there's one obvious thing we could try," said Piper.

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"The whole northern part of the city has gone," said Gwen to Kennedy as she entered the room. "This attack makes all the previous ones look like pinpricks. Looks like the Goa'uld have sent in the first team this time."

Gwen was informing Kennedy of the current state of the battle which had started with the Jaffa attack on the witch HQ. She had just spent some time talking to some of the witches handling communications with the various fighting formations. Of course she did not mean that the northern part of the city had literally gone anywhere, just that it had now been captured by the enemy forces.

After playing a leading part in the successful fight to defend the witch HQ the two earth women had decided to remain on the premises for the time being to help provide security against a further attack and see if they could come up with any ideas to really hurt the Goa'uld.

"By why don't the Kallistian witches do what they did before and blow up the Jaffa weapons?" asked Kennedy. "That worked so well last time."

"They're doing some of that," replied Gwen, "but the Kallistians had the Halliwells helping them then. This time the Halliwells aren't here and there are some witches working on the other side. It's not so easy."

"Well we won't be getting any help from the others up in space," said Kennedy. "At least not for a while. I heard they captured Marduk's big ship but they've now got their hands full with Apophis's fleet. He's turned up with a much bigger fleet than Marduk. That's probably where all these Jaffa are coming from."

"Well at least we managed to hold the witch HQ," said Gwen. "Once the witches started doing their magic it wasn't really a contest. Do you think the Goa'uld knew about the Wolfram and Hart business with the demons or was their attack just a coincidence?"

"I don't believe in coincidences," said Kennedy. "Or at least not those sorts of coincidences. I think Apophis is working with Wolfram and Hart."

"You might be right but don't forget about the witches working for Apophis," said Gwen. "He might have a seer who gave him the heads up about the Wolfram and Hart attack. Apophis might just have decided to take advantage and attack at a bad time for the witches."

"Well Wolfram and Hart certainly do have seers," said Kennedy. "Maybe that's why they pulled their stunt at this time, just when they knew Apophis was planning to attack."

"But why would Wolfram and Hart cooperate with the Goa'uld?" asked Gwen. "They're against the Goa'uld."

"And we know this because they said so?" replied Kennedy sarcastically. "Hey, you don't think they might have been lying do you? Anyway it's basic tactics. If you have two enemies, you want to get them fighting each other. Then you can just pick up the pieces afterwards."

"Yeah, from what I've heard about Wolfram and Hart that's just the sort of thing they'd do," agreed Gwen.

"Anyway we've got to leave Cordy to deal with Wolfram and Hart," said Kennedy. "We've got to do something about the witches who are working for Apophis. It's the witches who are protecting the Jaffa from the Kallistien magic. Without them the Kallistians should be able to throw out the Jaffa again."

"What do you suggest?" asked Gwen. "All of our witches are busy and we don't have any way to get aboard Apophis's ships. I bet that's where the big cheese himself is."

"There are some witches that aren't involved in the fighting," said Kennedy. "And there's a way they might be able to help us attack Apophis. Listen to this, see what you think."

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"Point one; they know we've got the Stargate here," said Fred. "They know we can use it to leave. So that might be just what they want to do, scare us off so they can come in and take the Gate."

"Point two; they've stopped us communicating with anybody outside of here. Even Amy and Anya can't get through so it seems they've got powerful equipment or powerful magic users working for them, or both. They've just left us the Stargate as a way of communication or escape."

"Point three; Assuming this is Wolfram and Hart plus possibly the NID they want to get their hands on Dawn and they probably know she's in here," continued Fred. "Or at least they want to get their hands on this Key and they think we've got it in here somewhere or Dawn can lead them to it."

"Point four; we shouldn't play into their hands by doing what they want. We've got to react in a way they don't expect. I don't think we should go through the Gate unless we really have to."

"Point five," continued Amy. "We can't take the Gate with us, or at least not without Willow's teleportation power. Anya and I can't move something that big ourselves although we can teleport one or two people if we really need to. Anyway we can't leave the Gate unguarded."

"Point six," said Connor, "we can't just sit here doing nothing while they make all the moves. I say we attack them now, clear them out of town. We can take them between us. They won't be expecting that. Amy and Anya can teleport a couple of us outside the perimeter and we can hit them from behind. What do you say Gunn?"

"I say if it comes to a fight you're always stronger on your home turf," said Gunn. "We've got a lot of advantages in here we won't have out there, including the protection spells. I think we'll be better off waiting to fight them in here if they try to come inside and take Dawn or the Gate. They don't know what we got set up in here. We might be able to take them by surprise."

"Well we could try a combination of both plans," said Anya. "We don't have to..."

Anya was interrupted by Dawn jumping up, screaming in pain and holding her head with both hands. As everybody directed their attention to her she suddenly shuddered and just for an instant turned a bright, shiny green colour before returning to normal. She then collapsed unconscious. Connor jumped forward and caught her as she fell. Of those watching, only Anya knew about Dawn's origins and had any idea of what might be happening.

"They're attacking Dawn with magic," said Anya. "Dial up Kallistien! Quick, we've got to get her out of here. We got to get her out of range of their magic." So far Fred's proposal that they maintain an open connection through the Gate had not been implemented since they had not been able to reach agreement as to the most suitable location.

"But isn't that line busy?" asked Gunn.

"That's the Gate up on the Space station," said Major Larkham. "We can try the main Kallistien Gate down on the planet."

"But why Kallistien?" asked Fred, looking at Anya.

"Where else do you think we're going to get magical help?" replied Anya.


	34. Demon Hunting

**Chapter Thirty Four: Demon Hunting**

Wesley woke up and looked around him. The room was dark with just a little light coming in from a window on the other side of the room. Once again Wesley had woken up at the start of what was by now a very familiar time loop. There was a certain advantage in not remembering the previous time loops he thought. This was becoming very boring, very quickly. This time he didn't bother repeating the actions he had taken previously except for getting up off the bed.

Wesley and Eve had discussed their predicament during the previous loop. They had decided that they were on another world or in some sort of temporary pocket universe. There were certainly not on Earth nor on Kallistien. Wherever they were, it looked at first sight something like LA but it clearly wasn't LA. The whole facade ended just a few streets away. After that there was an empty wasteland stretching away as far as the eye could see.

The reason why they seemed to be in some version of LA, Wesley had decided, was probably because of who they were. He believed that the time loop created its reality from the tools it had available. Wesley and Eve had both lived for some time in LA before coming to Kallistien. The false LA seemed to be a mixture of the areas that Wesley and Eve were most familiar with, the areas they remembered the best, with the notable exception of the places where they worked and lived.

Whatever power had sent them to this place would have done a good enough job to fool them had they been unaware of the time loop. It was their knowledge of the repetition of events, and their ability to explore the whole area rather than repeat a predetermined set of actions, that had enabled them to recognise the falseness of the whole setup.

Neither Wesley nor Eve had been able to come up with any reason for why Wolfram and Hart might have put them 'on ice'. What was the big important secret that Wolfram and Hart didn't want revealed? Wesley hadn't so far mentioned it to Eve but he had begun to wonder if they had been put where they were for a quite different reason.

There was such a thing as a Kakasta demon he had recalled, a demon that was sometimes also called the Arachne demon. This demon was like a demonic spider, although not in appearance. It captured its prey and incapacitated it for later consumption, just like a spider tying up its captives in spider silk and keeping them fresh for when they were wanted.

Is that what had happened? Had they been captured by a demon and placed in the demon's larder for future consumption? Is that what this time loop trap was all about, a way the demon had for holding them captive? And if so what was the demon doing now? Why hadn't it just killed them straight away? Were the other people in and around this hotel real people who had been caught in the same way? Or were they simply part of the false surroundings, part of the background detail? They certainly seemed to be real people.

Wesley had a possible answer to one point. The demon, if such it was, would now be free on Kallistien, a world of magic, a world of magic users. This was the sort of prey it would be especially keen to kill or capture. Demons generally were most attracted to those with some sort of magic or supernatural power of their own. That was one of the reasons why witches and slayers generally 'happened' across rather more demons and vampires than came the way of an ordinary person.

Wesley and Eve would be minor morsels by comparison with the various magic users back on Kallistien. In any event the demon might have been able to power itself from the magical energy in Cordelia's wand. It might be full up and might not need to feed again for a while.

As far as Wesley could recall, the details of how this type of demon operated were obscure and he had been trying to remember all he had ever read about it. What he really needed was access to his books to see if his surmise was correct and to allow him to research the demon and its weaknesses.

As Eve once again entered the room Wesley glanced up at her. Whatever the truth of the matter, the big problem remained the same. They had to get away from this place somehow or at least send out a cry for help so that somebody would know where they were. If he was right about the demon, but they weren't able to escape, then sooner or later they had the problem of how to deal with it when it eventually returned to consume them.

"There's one thing we haven't tried yet," said Eve. "One source of magic that we still have available." As she spoke Eve pulled out her amulet and stared at it. "These amulets are magical. They're probably what's allowing us to be aware of the fact that we're in a time loop. Without the amulets I expect we'd just go on reliving the same day over and over again, without knowing it was the same day. Do you think we can use them to break free somehow?"

Wesley pulled out his own amulet. "Maybe we can," he replied looking at it. "I believe Tara can tune into the amulets somehow. But the problem is she can't orb to another world and she might not be able to hear us anyway, if we're a world away. She should still be on Kallistien and it looks like we're on another world altogether. We've got to work out the best way to use the amulets."

"It's a pity we don't have somebody with us who knows all about magic spells and things like that isn't it," said Eve sarcastically. "Now if we just had somebody who knew magic without having to look it up in books all the time."

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"Well if Jagerat's given us the right Gate address then it should work," said Phoebe to Willow. "He says Marduk got it from one of the spies he had with Apophis's people. Just so long as Apophis and his witches aren't expecting us."

Phoebe, Willow, Buffy and Xander were stood in front of the Stargate aboard what had been Marduk's flagship. Also present were Teal'c and a team of Jaffa recruited from those who had served Marduk. An SG military team under Colonel Marker was also there to provide security.

Rather than continue to risk themselves in space where they could suddenly be exposed to sunlight, the two vampires, Angel and Drusilla had returned to the planet, via the Stargate aboard the ship. Darkness had now fallen in Demantine and they would be able to lend a hand in the continuing battle for the city against Apophis's Jaffa.

Phoebe had made preparations to do her spell again, the spell that would force the Stargate on Apophis's flagship to connect with the Gate aboard Marduk's ship, even if it was currently connected to another Gate. The plan was to use the Gate as an entry point into Apophis's ship to launch a surprise attack on the ship and take it over.

"OK, dial up," said Phoebe when she was ready, and Teal'c began dialling. As it happened no spell was needed, the connection to Apophis's Stargate was established in the regular way without any difficulty. The thing to do now was to test things out to see if there was a barrier or some sort of ambush in place at the other end. It hardly seemed likely that they would be able to simply walk onto the other ship unchallenged.

As soon as the connection was confirmed Willow stepped forward. "Search!" she commanded and a tendril of force extended out from her outstretched right hand. Willow kept concentrating and the misty line of magical power stretched and entered the Stargate in front of her.

The others waited and watched Willow while she closed her eyes in concentration. After about ten seconds Willow suddenly stepped back and waved her hand to dissolve the tendril extending into the Gate. "OK, it seems alright to me," she said. "There doesn't seem to be any barrier in place and I don't get any impression of a reception committee in the immediate vicinity. I think it's quite safe to go through."

Without waiting for any replies, and showing full confidence in her powers, Willow stepped into the Stargate, closely followed by Buffy, Xander, Phoebe and Teal'c. The other Jaffa would remain behind until Teal'c signalled for them to join him. Colonel Marker and his team would remain on guard back on Marduk's ship as security against unwelcome arrivals.

The sight that met them was a surprise. It wasn't a surprise that Apophis's people in the Gate room were frozen in time by Willow's magic. That was just what she had intended. The surprise was that there were only two Jaffa in the room and unarmed Jaffa at that. For some reason Apophis did not have much of a guard on his gate to prevent unwelcome visitors from boarding his ship.

"There's something not right here," said Buffy. "Even if they weren't expecting us they should have raised the alarm when our Gate connected to theirs. Everybody remain on alert. It shouldn't be this easy. Not with a battle going on."

"Perhaps most of Apophis's people are down on the planet fighting the battle," said Xander. "We might just have found an unguarded back door."

"I hope so," said Buffy. "But Jack and Sam say this Apophis is a very devious character so we can't assume anything."

By now everybody was ready to move out of the Gate room and launch the attempt to take over the other ship. Teal'c moved over to the door controls and was about to open the door before signalling for the other Jaffa to join them through the Gate when he was stopped by Phoebe.

"Wait!" insisted the witch. "Don't touch anything yet." Everybody looked at Phoebe who was staring at the two frozen Jaffa who were in the room.

"Have you had a vision?" Willow asked Phoebe.

"No, but I might be able to get one before we go any further," Phoebe replied.

"Why not do one of your truth spells on these guys?" suggested Xander.

"That would take too long," said Phoebe.

"Anyway they can't tell us what they don't know," said Willow. "And they might not know what Apophis's got planned."

"But I if I grab hold of one of these guys I might be able to get a vision find out what's going on," said Phoebe. "I might be able to find out if there's some sort of trap waiting for us. Of course when I touch him he's gonna wake up."

"No he's not," said Buffy who walked over to one of the frozen Jaffa and delivered a knock out punch. The punch released the Jaffa from Willow's magic freeze and at the same time knocked him unconscious.

Phoebe now knelt down alongside the fallen man and took hold of one of his hands in both of hers. She concentrated on using her gift to try to get a warning about what threats were ahead of them. The vision came quickly and it was only moments before Phoebe straightened up again.

"I just saw a spaceship blowing up," said Phoebe. "Not Apophis's big flagship, just a much smaller ship."

"OK, so we don't get into any smaller ships," said Buffy. "We've been warned."

"How do we know we're not already on a smaller ship?" asked Xander. He turned to Teal'c. "What do you think? Can Apophis move his Gate to another ship?"

"He could indeed," replied Teal'c. "And once he received word that we had come aboard that ship..."

"He'd blow it up," finished Xander.

At that moment the whole room was shaken by an explosion.

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"Well I'm not pussyfooting around these people any longer," said Cordelia. "I'm going in the front door. If they don't like it, too bad. I'll kick it down if I have to. I just hope some of them try to stop us. I've just about had it with Wolfram and Hart."

"Well I," began Giles who paused momentarily as the noise of an explosion sounded from the fighting in the north of the city, "I don't suppose the local authorities, the Kallistians, are going to arrest us for breaking in but a little more subtlety would probably be best. We don't want to spend time explaining ourselves to the police when there's a powerful demon on the loose."

"I think the police have got other problems at the moment," said Tara looking in the direction from where the sound of the explosion had come. "But I've been thinking about the demon. Don't we need to know the demon's name before we can do that spell to put it back into a book?"

"It would help," said Giles. "But I think we can do without, if we have enough power available. I think between the three of us we don't have to worry about lack of magic power. But we can call on Willow and Phoebe or a few of the Kallistians if necessary. The main risk would be in sweeping up lesser demons and putting them in the book as well. That wouldn't be a bad thing in itself. We'll just have to make sure we have a nice big book."

"Wait a minute," said Cordelia. "Doesn't Angel count as a demon? We wouldn't want to put him and Drusilla into a book by mistake."

"Good point," said Giles although he didn't sound very convinced. Giles was not a big fan of the souled vampires and would not be at all upset if they disappeared altogether. "OK, we'd better try to find out which demon this is before we actually do the spell. That or make sure the vampires are well out of the way before we start."

By now Cordelia, Giles and Tara had arrived outside the front door of the darkened premises of the local branch of Wolfram and Hart. As on the previous night-time visit, from the outside there was no sign of life in the building. Tara called a small witch light and sent it through the window before peering inside. "Take my hand," she said finally. Cordelia and Giles complied and Tara orbed the three of them inside.

"Now if we meet anybody, they can answer a few questions," said Cordelia. "And if we don't meet anybody we can have a good look around until we find one of those books we want. What's so special about these particular books anyway?" Cordelia's last remarks were directed to Giles.

"Two things really," replied Giles. "Apart from the need for the book to be blank and large enough to contain the demon, it needs to be the sort of book which doesn't deteriorate with time the way a normal book would. It's quite difficult to make a book like that so we want one ready made if we can find it."

"One of those books with a lock as well if we can find one," said Tara. "A lock that can be spell protected to stop just anybody picking it up and reading it."

Giles nodded. "Yes, a lock would be useful. If necessary we can probably improvise something suitable with the right magic spells. But we must start with a blank book at least as large as the one that was destroyed."

"Well, first I suggest we try the basement," said Cordelia walking towards the stairs. "That's where the main defences were set up last time I was here. That seems to be where they keep their most important stuff."

Cordelia led the way into the basement, expecting at any time to be faced with the same sort of defence that had confronted her and the others on her previous visit to Wolfram and Hart. Giles and Tara also remained on alert because Cordelia had told them what happened before, but this time there was no attack.

They reached the large open area in the basement which Cordelia had seen before and there were the pair of high double doors once more. This time the doors were open. The three of them went inside to find a small library. Or at least it had been a library. Now it was just a lot of empty shelves.

"Looks like somebody expected a return visit," said Cordelia. "And they took precautions in case the demon thing didn't work."

"Rats leaving a sinking ship?" suggested Tara.

"A sinking ship?" asked Giles.

"Maybe Wolfram and Hart have cut their links with this world because they expect the Goa'uld to win and take over," explained Tara. "I can't imagine they would want the Goa'uld to get their hands on what was in here. Or perhaps they just don't want all their stuff to be destroyed in the battle."

"Or perhaps they expect something worse than a battle to happen here," said Giles.

"Something to do with demons?" asked Cordelia.

"It's been here, look," said Drusilla stopping beside a dead body lying in a heap on the side of the road. "She's been drained, drained of life force. It's a demon alright and a powerful one at that. She's dressed like a witch. The demon might be one of those that feed on magic users."

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Angel knelt down for a quick examination of the corpse. Nobody he recognised thank goodness. Drusilla was right. This was demon work but he had no idea which sort it might be. He knew of a number of different types that would fit the bill and there were doubtless plenty of others he didn't know about, especially if Kallistien had its own menagerie of exotic demons. "Can you still track it?" he asked looking up at Drusilla.

"Oh yes," replied the other vampire. "It seems to be stronger. Feeding probably makes it stronger. That makes it easier for me to feel it. It's not very far away now."

Angel and Drusilla had transported back down to the planet via the Stargate on board Marduk's ship. They had arrived at the Kallistien Stargate and had intended to go to the witch HQ to offer their help in the fight against the Goa'uld forces on planet. But on arrival back on the planet Drusilla had immediately become aware of a demon, a very powerful demon, in the vicinity. Drusilla had been tracking the demon through the city ever since.

As he followed Drusilla away from the body a mild breeze brought a distinctive scent to Angel's attention. A foul, undoubtedly demonic scent was now apparent to him. But he still could not identify the type of demon. They were getting closer to whatever type of creature it was they were after. Angel quickened his pace and then started running. He wanted to find the demon before it killed again.

"You're right, it's not far away," he said as he swept past Drusilla. Drusilla quickened her pace to keep up with him.

The two vampires had found their way into the commercial district of the city, an area of shops and many offices, most of them between two and five stories high. As they turned the next corner the saw a large shadowy figure smash its way through the front door of one of the buildings along the street and go inside.

"There must be magic users inside," said Drusilla. "It's still hunting prey."


	35. New Arrivals

**Chapter Thirty Five: New Arrivals**

Clunk! Another missile hit the spaceship without exploding, thus proving that their protection continued to work. The expansion of the magic spell to a short way into space outside the ship had been a success of sorts. The Earth witches who had previously worked for Marduk were now working hard to maintain the spell preventing explosions or the operation of modern weapons both in the ship itself and in the area immediately outside. The Kallistian witches who had come aboard as part of the attack on the ship had now returned to the planet to take part in the battle going on down below.

The advantage of the magical protection was that it had kept the ship intact and prevented it from being damaged or destroyed by the overwhelming fire power of Apophis's fleet. The disadvantage was that the spell could only be maintained if the ship was not moved. A test had revealed that if the ship moved in space it did not take the surrounding neutralised area with it.

Moving the ship left it temporarily vulnerable to attack because the spell had to be freshly extended to the space outside every time and it had no affect outside the ship until it was once more stationary. A particular danger in this situation was the sort of enemy missile that exploded before impact, one which was set to explode in close proximity to the ship.

A further unwelcome discovery had been that the protection spell prevented the ship from firing its own weapons against the enemy. They simply didn't work. Jack wasn't pleased about that but on balance he recognised that the magical protection was a good thing since their ship was massively outnumbered.

The overall situation would have been a standoff if this had been just a ship to ship conflict but everything was on a much larger scale than that. Apophis's whole fleet was unharmed and most of it was still being used to support his attack on the planet. It could also be used to bombard and destroy the planet whenever Apophis gave the order.

The allies now in control of the spaceship had been told about the groundside attack by Apophis's forces. They believed that all the time Apophis thought this ground attack might be successful he was likely to hold off from bombarding the planet. What Apophis most likely wanted above everything else was greater access to magic power by gaining control of Kallistien and all of its magic users.

So long as Apophis had a chance to achieve that, he was expected to continue his attack. If it got to the stage where he no longer had a chance to achieve such control then he would most likely cut his losses and destroy what he could not possess, in order to prevent it from being used against him.

"What we need is a way to defend the planet from destruction by Apophis's fleet," said Jack. "Some way of shielding the whole planet. Either that or some way to take down the whole Goa'uld fleet. Until we have that, all we can do is keep the battle down on the planet going. Winning could be as bad for the Kallistians as losing."

"Well if we just hold on long enough, Daniel and the witches might come back with the answer," said Sam from her position beside Jack at the ship's controls. "They've been gone quite a while now. They might be back soon with the secret of how the Kallistians got rid of the Goa'uld the last time."

"Yeah, how exactly does that work?" asked Jack. "Can't they go for like a year and still come back just after they left? Does it mean it's bad news they've not come back yet?"

"I spoke to Rupert Giles about that," said Sam. "It's like everything else. The more you do, the more power it takes. Don't use more magic power than you need to or you might not have enough when you really need it. The Halliwells saved power by arranging it so that when they got back the same amount of time would have passed here as they spent in the past.

"Well I hope Daniel's OK. It's not like he can send us updates I suppose. But we don't even know if the big secret, whatever it is, is something we can still use, even if they come back with it right now," said Jack. "Remember, we always thought it might just be some sort of uprising which took the local Goa'uld by surprise. We can't afford to rely on somebody magically appearing with the solution to all our problems. And I bet the ancient Kallistians never faced anything as strong as Apophis's fleet."

"There's the attack that Teal'c, Willow and Buffy are making on Apophis's flagship. That might work." said Sam. "If they take out Apophis the way we took out Marduk we can still win."

"Well their attack might help," said Jack. "But even if they take his ship what's to stop Apophis transporting over to another ship and continuing the fight from there? It's not like they've got Tara with them this time with her orbing and everything. You know Apophis, he's always got a last minute exit of some sort ready."

"And if he does start to lose ships he could cut his losses and start the bombardment," said Sam. "So we still need a better way to defend the planet."

"But at the moment we can't hurt them and they can't hurt us, all we can do is sit here and blow raspberries at them. Great!" said a frustrated Jack O'Neill. "We can't even move the ship and ram them. There must be something we can do to help defeat Apophis. This guy's our enemy. We can't just sit here and let the others do the heavy lifting."

"We could use the teleportation equipment to put people onto Apophis's ships," said Sam. "Back up what Phoebe and the others are doing. But we don't have that many people up here at the moment and we need the ones we've got in case Apophis pulls the same trick on us. Maybe we could get the Kallistians to launch a big attack from Marduk's captured bases using the equipment Marduk's got on planet."

"From the reports we've been getting I think the Kallistians need everybody they've got to fight off Apophis's Jaffa down on the planet," said Jack. "I don't think they could go for that at the moment, even if they wanted to. What we really need are a whole lot of troops from home. The trouble is, that would blow the whole Stargate project wide open to the public. Mass panic, aliens coming to get us, all that sort of thing. Not a good idea. But maybe there's something else we could try."

"And that is?" asked Sam.

"How about we ask the witches to transport bombs or missiles onto Apophis's ships?" said Jack. "The witches might be able to do a magical teleport or do it by opening a few of those magic portals that Willow uses. We could aim a bomb at each ship and try to take out Apophis's whole fleet at pretty much the same time. Even if he got away through a Gate he'll have lost his fleet and won't be able to conquer or destroy the witches."

"But if things are that easy why haven't we been receiving bombs from Apophis?" asked Sam. "He's got witches as well. He doesn't know we've got protection from explosions. You'd think he'd at least give it a try. And he wouldn't need to bother firing all those missiles at us. I don't think many witches can do what Willow and the Halliwells do. They seem to be in a class of their own."

"No, that's not right," said Jack. "The Goa'uld had witches who opened up portals to snatch people from Earth so they could do the same again to attack us here. And I think they've being using magic portals to move troops around on the planet. I expect Apophis has got his witches busy with the battle on the planet, that and protecting his ass from our witches, just like Marduk did."

"You're right," said Sam. "Now I come to think of it didn't Marduk's witches do some of the snatching themselves? Some of the witches we rescued from Marduk might be just the right people to do what you want."

"It might be like batteries," said Jack. "If you haven't got a big powerful one like Willow or one of the sisters, a bunch of less powerful ones might be just as good. Anyway I'll soon know. I'll have a word with them."

"Better not call them batteries," said Sam. "And you might have trouble asking the witches to transport bombs. As I recall they're not too keen on that sort of thing, not the Earth witches anyway. Would you like me to have a word with them?"

"Not too impressed with my diplomatic skills eh Major?" said Jack. I wonder why, he thought, as if I didn't know.

"It's not that sir," said Carter. "It's just...

"It's exactly that," said Jack. "And you're right. You have a word with the witches. I'll stay here and blow some more raspberries."

"Message from Colonel Marker," interrupted Sergeant Paisley. "He's lost contact with the team that went through the Gate. The Gate suddenly lost connection with Apophis's ship and Teal'c's not responding to communications."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Piper's suggestion was that at least one of them should return back in time and meet their previous selves when they first arrived in the past outside the castle. They could inform their previous selves of all that had gone on. This would enable them to avoid the mistakes that had caused them to become involved in past events.

If the second time around the time travellers simply restricted themselves to being observers, which had been the original plan, then they would not alter the time line. All the changes brought about by their actions and presence in the past would be avoided and everything would be reset back the way it had originally had been.

"Why observers?" asked Paige. "Why not tell them to go straight back to the future? We now know the Key was used to expel the Goa'uld back in the past. We also know we can't use the Key back in the future. If they, if we, stay here we're just wasting our time and there's always a risk we'll get dragged into events again and alter the time line again."

"She's got a point," said Piper. "And Glory's a pretty powerful witch. It won't be easy watching what she's up to without her knowing about it and that could change things all over again."

"You're forgetting one thing," said Prue. "Don't you think it's significant that Lissie is just like Dawn? Lissie and the Key are not the same thing. Perhaps Dawn and the Key are not the same thing. Maybe there's a way to separate Dawn from the Key and then use the Key in the future?"

"Well you can tell Buffy and Willow all that," said Piper. "Because I'm certainly not going to."

"Yeah, exactly what would you think if somebody wanted to experiment on your little sister?" asked Paige glaring at her eldest sister.

"I'd say no of course," said Prue. "No way, no how. But I'm not talking about experimenting. I'm just saying we should find out what happened, what originally happened before we changed things. It might be important back in the future. It might one day be important for Dawn to know the truth about where she came from. And anyway Dawn might be able to use the power of the Key herself if we can find out enough about it."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It didn't work," said Prue as soon as she materialised again. "It's as if I wasn't there. I was like a ghost, an invisible ghost. They couldn't see me and they couldn't hear me. I couldn't change anything. I couldn't even pick up rocks to throw at them, at us. I was completely insubstantial."

"That's weird." asked Piper. "It should have worked. Did we do the spell right?"

"I think we've gone too far," said Paige. "We've done too much time-travelling in too short a time. Maybe there's a limit. Maybe after a certain point, once everything's been well and truly screwed up, it just doesn't work properly any more."

In the end Prue had travelled back to when the five time travellers had first arrived in the past. She had intended to tell their previous selves exactly what had happened along with their thoughts about Lissie and the Key. It would then be up to their earlier selves, including Faith and Daniel, to decide whether to remain in the past as observers or whether to go straight back to the future with the knowledge they had been given.

But the plan hadn't worked so the changes to the time line which the travellers believed they had introduced hadn't been wiped away. They were still faced with the possibility that they could not now return to the future themselves because their future no longer existed.

Lissie had still not been told by the sisters where they had come from and what they were trying to do. Although her knowledge would all be wiped away if the reset was successful they were still trying to minimise how much they affected events in the past. Lissie was surprisingly accepting of this since she had previous experience of dealing with Kallistien witches and they never told you anything they didn't have to, especially since the Goa'uld had arrived.

However although she had not been permitted to hear what the sisters were talking about, Prue's failure in whatever she had been trying to do was obvious to Lissie so she went over to join the sisters. She had an idea which she now explained. "Were you all at the ceremony when Glory tried to activate the Key?" she asked. "Did you see what happened?"

"Uh huh," confirmed Prue. "Why?"

"Was there any sort of an energy discharge from the Key?" asked Lissie. "Do you know if the Key was woken up?"

"If you mean the sudden green glow then yes," said Prue. "It was very bright for a second or two."

"I was afraid of that. I thought the Key had been activated, or at least partly activated. I felt it happen while I was a prisoner. That's probably why your plan didn't work, whatever it was," said Lissie. "Once the Key wakes up all the rules change."

"What do you mean change?" asked Paige. "How does it change things?"

"Well, and I'm not too sure about the details because a lot of knowledge has been lost," said Lissie. "But the Key's a pretty strong focus of power. When it's awake and nearby it makes some things difficult or impossible. I think it's got something to do with travel to other worlds. If you were trying something like that you've either got to use the Key to open the way or shut it down first before you use another method. If you want to shut down the Key then somebody who knows what to do has to follow the right procedure to do it."

"We knew the Key had something to do with travel to other worlds or other dimensions," said Prue. "But does it have an affect on time as well as a space?"

"Time travel?" asked Lissie, her eyes going wide. "Is that what you guys were trying to do, travel in time?"

"We'd rather not go into that," said Piper. "Do you know how to close it down?"

Lissie nodded, "I'm the keeper. I'm responsible for it. When the time comes I'll know what to do."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Paige.

"It's because I'm the keeper," said Lissie. "Once I've got the Key I'll know how to deal with it. I can't give you a procedure but once I get hold of it I just know I'll be able to close it down. The Key and the Keeper are linked. I can't explain it but I've had these feelings about it ever since my mother died and I became the keeper. Help me get hold of the Key. I'll shut it down and you should then be able do whatever it was you were trying to do."

Of course thought Lissie. If you knew what I knew about the Key you wouldn't let me anywhere near it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had taken several attempts before the people in Sunnydale were able to establish contact with the main Kallistian Stargate. Thankfully in that time Dawn, who remained unconscious, did not seem to be further affected by whatever it was that the Wolfram and Hart people were trying to do. She looked to be fine, just asleep.

It was a good job that Major Larkham had sent Sergeant Rees through the Gate with Anya, Dawn and Connor because the Gate on Kallistien was currently being guarded by an SG detail from Earth. All of the Kallistian soldiers had currently been drawn into the fighting for the city and General Hammond had sent a unit through from Earth to make sure that the Kallistien Gate did not fall into Apophis's hands. Rees was therefore on hand to vouch for them to the US officer in charge.

Dawn's recovery after coming through the Gate was rapid. Connor had laid her down on a grassy area near to the Gate. Almost immediately she opened her eyes and found that she was no longer in the Sunnydale Slayer HQ.

"What happened?" asked Dawn. "Why are we outside? And where are we? This isn't Sunnydale but it all seems familiar somehow."

Connor helped Dawn to sit up and then helped her as she carefully got to her feet. Connor and Anya then explained what had happened back in Sunnydale and why they had brought her through the Gate to Kallistien.

"You think they were trying to change me, um that is trying to..." Dawn broke off from talking to Anya and looked at Connor and then back at Anya.

"Do you think I should tell him?" asked Dawn.

"Tell me what?" asked Connor.

"Do you trust him?" asked Anya.

"Oh yes," said Dawn quickly. "Of course."

"Then it's up to you. It's your secret," said Anya.

Dawn took Connor and Anya aside so that the two women could explain things to him without anybody else overhearing. They told Connor about the Key and how Dawn had really come to Sunnydale. Connor had enough experience of the really weird not to let the facts bother him. But he was annoyed that nobody had told him about the Key before.

"I don't go around telling everybody," said Dawn. "Just those who need to know."

"And now you need to know," said Anya before Connor could respond further. "Wolfram and Hart might not know Dawn's the Key but they do know we've hidden it and Dawn's got something to do with it. They're using magic to help them get hold of it and it's affecting Dawn."

"So you've got to stay here until Wolfram and Hart have been dealt with," said Connor to Dawn.

From not very far away came a loud explosion. Sergeant Rees hurried over from where he had been talking to a couple of the Gate guards.

"We'd better get out of here," said the sergeant. "There's a big battle going on. The Goa'uld are attacking the city. The lieutenant there says south's the safest direction. The Major said I should stay with you guys and help keep you safe."

Another explosion interrupted their conversation. It came from the same direction as the first explosion, presumably not the south. But from the opposite direction to the explosions came two new arrivals. Two familiar figures who arrived at a jog.

"What are you doing here?" asked Kennedy. "Does Buffy know you're here?"

"We had to leave Sunnydale quickly," said Anya. "Dawn was being attacked by Wolfram and Hart."

"Attacked? Are you alright?" asked Gwen.

"Um, I think so," said Dawn. "But why does this place feel so familiar?"

"I dunno," replied Kennedy. "Have you got any memory of..."

"Can we please get off the street to somewhere safe before we do any more chatting," interrupted Connor. "Somewhere Dawn will be safe. Why do women always have to jaw, jaw, jaw all the time?"

Kennedy gave Connor a brief hostile stare but said nothing more before leading the way back south. Dawn gave Connor a rather more friendly look. Hm she thought. A little bit of protection is OK, it shows he cares. But if he takes it too far we're gonna have a little talk. I have to take it from Buffy, but I'm not taking it from anybody else.

"We'll take you back to the witch HQ," said Kennedy to the group. "That's the safest place in the city right about now."

"We were coming to see you guys back in Sunnydale anyway," said Gwen to Anya. "Kennedy wondered if you witches could help with what's going on here."

"Depends on the sort of help you want," said Anya. "I'm not meant to get involved in any wars, not wars of the mundane sort anyway. Now if I was still a vengeance demon I'd be really enjoying myself now. Nothing like a real war to stoke the thirst for vengeance."

Sergeant Rees gave Anya a careful look as he walked behind her as a rear guard for the group. Weird people he thought, total fruit cakes. These people can do a few strange things alright but otherwise they're on a different planet. Although come to think of it...


	36. More Key Events

**Chapter Thirty Six: More Key Events**

"What do you mean 'gone'? Gone from the house? Gone from Sunnydale? Gone for good?" demanded Lilah. "Where's it gone and how? Be specific!"

Lilah's question was directed at the elder of the three mages who were working for her. The mages were based in a house near to the Sunnydale Slayer HQ and had spent the past few hours working spells aimed at the Key. On being brought to Sunnydale the mages had confirmed Lilah's suspicions that the Key was still in Sunnydale. They had later been able to narrow this down to somewhere inside the house or grounds of the Slayer HQ.

On Lilah's orders the mages had been trying to transform the Key back into its original form so that it could be used as the focus of the proposed mystical barrier to permanently separate the Earth from Kallistien and at the same time prevent the Goa'uld from ever returning to Earth. After a long period of non-stop spell casting the three mages had suddenly stopped.

"They've sent the Key somewhere through the Gate," said Maybourne. "You must have known there was a risk they'd do that. Despite what your geeks claimed, Miss Summers and her friends must have discovered what you were up to. That or she's simply taken it somewhere else by disappearing in a swirl of lights again."

"I told you, that couldn't have been Dawn Summers, not the real Dawn Summers," said Lilah. "She can't do that sort of thing."

"No?" said Maybourne sceptically. "You might be right but even if you are, one of her friends can do it. What's to stop one of them disappearing with Summers and the Key?"

Lilah turned back to her chief mage. "Well? Is that what happened?"

"The Key's definitely not on Earth any more," said the mage. "If it was we'd still be able to detect it, however faintly. We'd still be able to continue with the spell. They can't know what we're doing. They shouldn't be able to detect it until it's too late. It must be a coincidence that it's been taken off world. We'd know if somebody had teleported away with it to somewhere else on Earth. They haven't."

"Let me get this straight," said Maybourne. "We've told these people we're interested in this Key. We've surrounded their place and cut them off from communicating with anybody outside. We left the Stargate in there as the only way out but your people don't think they suspect anything. Huh! Your guys might be high up in the mumbo jumbo business but they come up short in the thinking department."

"You told me they wouldn't be able to take it though the Gate or send it off world through a portal," said Lilah menacingly to the mage.

"They shouldn't be able to. The energy of the Key and the energy of the Gate aren't compatible," said the mage. "You can't put the Key through the Gate or a magic portal without major consequences."

Oh yeah thought Maybourne. You guys know it all don't you? That's why you're working as flunkies for Lilah Morgan. But a glance at Lilah's face put things into perspective. Hm, he thought. Lilah's not the sort of person you want to cross. Even if this guy doesn't know what's going on it's probably more than his life's worth to admit it. That's the trouble with making your people scared of you. They don't want to give you any bad news.

"Now just a minute," said Lilah, starting to get really angry. "You told me it would be impossible to send the Key through the Gate but now you're saying if they do it there'll be major consequences. So it is possible? They might have done it?"

"Well possible yes, but nobody in their right mind would..." began the mage.

"Transport," interrupted one of Lilah's people looking up from her position at a nearby desk. "Somebody just did a magic teleport out of the building."

"Was that when the Key disappeared?" asked Lilah.

"No, this only just happened," said the woman making the announcement. A tall, very thin and rather grey faced individual. Maybourne was not sure she was entirely human. "This was some time after the Key disappeared."

"Which direction?" asked Lilah. "And how far?"

"West, and just a couple of miles," replied the woman. "That's about where the police station is located."

"That's OK," said Lilah. "We've got that covered." If somebody tries to bring the Sunnydale Police into this again we'll get plenty of advance warning she thought. Lilah turned back to the mage.

"I hope they've taken the Key through the Gate to Kallistien," said added suddenly, completely changing her mood and becoming upbeat. "That'd be perfect."

"Because?" asked Maybourne.

"Because what the mages have started with the Key will work just as well there as here," replied Lilah. "I've got a few contacts on Kallistien and I'll soon know if the Key has arrived."

But what about the major consequences thought Maybourne. Anyway that does it, I'm not going any further with this until I know a lot more about Wolfram and Hart. After everything else that's happened we now have wizard flunkies and off world contacts. Am I being played by some Goa'uld or other off world threat? Time to have a long chat with Miss Lilah Morgan and find out exactly what she is up to.

Maybourne turned to look straight at Captain Wright who was stood on the other side of the room. He gave a slow and deliberate nod and watched while Wright talked to the two agents with him. One man left the room and the other moved towards Lilah Morgan with Wright. But Lilah Morgan was well aware of what was going on.

"Before you do anything you'll regret you'd better speak to Senator Kinsey," said Lilah who was also looking at the approaching Wright and his colleague. She held out her cellphone to Maybourne. "He's waiting for your call."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I panicked," said Willow as she slowly sat up. "Sorry guys," she added with her old guilty smile as she looked around at the group. "I just teleported us somewhere because I thought we were all going to be blown up."

"You saved our lives Will," said Xander getting to his feet. "Again. No need to apologise. We're all glad to be here, wherever here is."

"Yeah, big thanks from me but where are we?" asked Phoebe who, like the others, had found herself lying on the floor of an unfamiliar room. She too got to her feet. "I guess you teleported us all off of that spaceship but where did you take us, and how?"

"I just sort of jumped to the nearest place available," said Willow who winced in pain and put her hand to her head. "But I don't know where it is."

"Listen!" said Buffy. "Can you hear that?" Everybody stopped talking. A low humming background noise could now be heard.

"It's either the air conditioning, a great big humming monster or the engines of a spaceship," said Xander. "If this place is anything like Sunnydale the favourite would be the great big humming monster."

"We are indeed on a Goa'uld spaceship," said Teal'c. "The question is which one. Are we back on Marduk's ship or are we on a ship of Apophis's fleet? Are we perhaps on Apophis's flagship where we originally intended to be?"

The five travellers were in a room with one door but no windows. It seemed to be an unoccupied office room in that there were several tables, some of which contained computer terminals. Racks of shelves on two sides of the room contained some sort of tape or disc storage records. Since most of Marduk's ship was still unfamiliar to them it was not immediately obvious whether they were back there or on a completely different ship.

"Well that's easy to find out," said Willow who now for the first time got to her feet, helped by a hand from Xander. "I'll just...Ooh!" Willow said no more because as she stood up she clutched her head and fainted into Xander's arms. He caught her and picked her up before gently placing her onto an empty table in the middle of the room.

Buffy and Phoebe carefully examined Willow and made sure that she was breathing normally. Xander hovered nearby.

"Do you think she's just tired?" asked Buffy giving Phoebe a worried look. "Whenever she's teleported before, it's taken a lot out of her, even when she only moved one person at a time. Moving all of us together like that, without Tara to help, must have been quite a strain."

"Yes, she seems to be alright, just exhausted," said Phoebe. "I think we should just let her rest."

"If she's in any danger I think you should call Tara," said Xander to Phoebe. "She can heal Willow."

"If I need to then I'll give it a try, but the way Whitelighters work they're only tuned into their own charges, so it might not work," said Phoebe. "But Tara's linked so closely to Willow that if she was in any danger I'm sure Tara would be here. I'm sure Willow just needs rest."

"Unless Tara's got troubles of her own and can't come," muttered Xander quietly looking at the sleeping Willow, still worried.

"We are on Apophis's flagship," announced Teal'c suddenly. He had been looking around the room. He held up one of the record packs which he had removed from a shelf and opened. "This indicates Apophis," he said pointing to the writing on the inside of the pack. "We are in a storage room aboard Apophis's flagship. We are aboard the ship we were trying to reach."

"We couldn't be on one of the other ships in his fleet?" asked Xander.

"No," replied Teal'c. "This is definitely the flagship. I have been aboard this ship before. I believe I now know exactly where we are."

"So how did Willow manage to teleport us to a place she's never seen before?" asked Phoebe. "It doesn't usually work like that."

"Don't ask us," said Buffy. "You're the witch. Anyway Willow teleported. That's not like when Tara orbs so I guess it must work a different way."

"I guess," said Phoebe. This makes flying look pretty useless as a power she thought. I'm one of the charmed ones. How come I don't get to do powerful magic like that? I've been neglecting my studies she thought. Willow seems to be developing her powers by studying spells, that and working with Tara. I need to have a long talk with the two of them when things have settled down.

"What now?" asked Xander. "Is it safe to wait here until Will has recovered?"

"We cannot afford to wait," said Teal'c. "There is still a battle being fought. We must play our part. The lives of others depend on it."

"He's right," agreed Buffy. "But we don't have the small army we thought we'd have when we went through the Gate."

"And for the moment we don't have Willow," said Phoebe. "Even when she wakes up she won't be doing any magic for a while. We need a new plan."

"Well we don't have enough people to take over and run a ship of this size," said Buffy. "Can we disable it somehow?"

"We could try to disable the ship's engines or the ship's weapon systems," Teal'c explained. "And then there are the fliers that can be launched from the ship. To stop them from being used we would need to damage or destroy the launch deck. We need more people before we try to do all of that. Our best plan would be to destroy the whole ship."

"Not unless we can get everybody off the ship first," said Buffy. "We don't kill people. That's not negotiable."

"How many fliers are there?" Phoebe asked quickly. She agreed with Buffy about not killing people but did not want an argument to develop between Teal'c and Buffy.

"On this ship, about fifty altogether," Teal'c replied calmly. He had no intention of arguing with the others. He recognised that destruction of the ship might be necessary but the people aboard, the humans, the Jaffa, were his people. The witch people, as he now thought of them, had already found a way to defeat one Goa'uld without killing his Jaffa and Teal'c was happy to allow them to do try to find a way to do the same with Apophis.

"But of course other ships in the fleet have their own complement," Teal'c continued. "Even if we destroyed the launch deck any fliers that had already been launched could land on another ship or down on the planet and continue to take part in the battle."

"Why don't we aim to take out the boss man like we did with Marduk," suggested Xander. "If we could stop that snaky thing inside him from controlling him we could end the war at a stroke."

"Even if he's actually on this ship, that won't be easy," said Buffy. "We had a lot more support taking Marduk down and we had Willow and Tara."

"What else do you suggest Teal'c?" asked Phoebe. "You know the Goa'uld, you know Apophis and you know this ship. What's our best bet?"

"Although the Gate we entered was on another ship it is unlikely that Apophis has left himself without a Gate on this ship," said Teal'c. "Apophis will need a Gate nearby to maintain contact with his base and in case he finds the need to escape from the ship quickly. If we can find that Gate and re-establish contact with our own forces we can bring others through and proceed with the original plan to take over the ship."

"And if that doesn't work we can use that Gate to get off this ship," said Buffy. "Works for me. Now any idea where this Gate might be."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This time the ceremony wasn't going to be in the woods. It wasn't going to be outside at all. It was going to be hidden from the Goa'uld as much as possible. It was due to take place in the large basement of a mansion house several miles north of town.

Not only was the ceremony set to take place away from any prying eyes but Glory had remembered Daniel's comment that the Goa'uld had instruments to detect energy discharges. She had therefore had preparations made to try to magically shield the area from any such detection.

Glory was aware this was probably yet another way that the time line was being changed. But she couldn't risk things going wrong now. And quite possibly they would go better now than they had originally. If the Key was used correctly there would be no need for the protection to be renewed in the future anyway. Any changes should result in a better future.

Once again Glory would be one of seven witches playing a central role but this time, apart from the witches, nobody else would be present except Daniel. Glory was as certain as she could be that the other witches, all personally known to her for a long time, were not working for the Goa'uld.

Daniel was happy to be able to observe the ceremony and fulfil the main reason for his journey to the past but he didn't know why Glory wanted him to be there. He assumed that she still wanted to keep an eye on him but he wasn't able to rule out a nagging doubt in the back of his mind. There was no indication that the ceremony would involve any sort of a sacrifice but he knew only too well that some ancient societies considered human sacrifice to be a vital part of their important rituals. He was painfully aware of his very limited knowledge of what was normal for ancient Kallistien.

Daniel had been able to persuade Glory not to go looking for Lissie, not to go looking for a showdown with the witch sisters. He probably wouldn't have succeeded since Glory was still angry about the snatching of Lissie. But time was short and Glory really had to get on with the ceremony if it was to have any chance of success.

Glory had transported Daniel and herself to the rendezvous where the other witches were waiting. Also present were the other things familiar from the first ceremony: a bowl on a tripod and a sword. A new sword, not the sword that had been shattered during the first ceremony. The only thing missing was the Key itself and Daniel began to wonder where Glory had hidden it. He hadn't seen it since the first ceremony.

"Everything ready?" asked Glory of one of the other witches.

"The uprising should be starting just about now," said the other witch. "That should keep the Goa'uld busy for a bit. Even with all their machines and weapons they won't be able to quell a world wide uprising lead by witches very easily."

"Ninurta will be pulling his double cross just about now," said Glory. "But in the wrong place. All the things I told him about have been changed, including the timing. All we need now for the ceremony is the Key itself."

In the center of the room was a large, heavy oak table covered in a richly embroidered golden cloth. A line of candlesticks and gold cups were stood on the table together with a large saucer shaped vessel from which a white vapour slowly floated upwards.

Glory now stood in front of the table and dramatically spread her arms wide. At once all of the candles caught light and whatever was in the saucer started bubbling. She now started to mutter an incantation. None of the other witches got involved so Daniel presumed that this was some sort of preparation rather than the main ceremony.

As Glory continued her chant the white vapour continued to flow from the saucer. There must be some sort of draught in the room thought Daniel because the vapour seemed to be flowing toward him and it began swirling around his head. The only other thing that seemed to be happening was that the room began to heat up. Or at least Daniel himself began to feel hotter and hotter, nobody else seemed to be affected.

Suddenly Glory turned and looked straight at Daniel, holding out both of her hands towards him. "Come!" she demanded.

Daniel opened his mouth to ask what was going on and what she wanted him to do but no words came out, just a small croak. He was now feeling really hot and was covered in sweat. Despite Glory's command he felt unable to move a step.

"Come!" said Glory a second time and now Daniel began to feel he would explode. His head felt as though it was splitting and he began feeling very dizzy.

"Come!" said Glory a third time and Daniel now lost consciousness and fell to the floor. At the same time the whole room was bathed in the pure green light of the Key. The Key that was floating out from within Daniel's body where Glory had hidden it.

Glory was careful not to touch the Key but used her power to manoeuvre it across the room until it was floating above the bowl on the tripod. She then let it slowly drop inside the bowl.

Right, phase one complete thought Glory. That worked better than I thought it would. Daniel never did realise why I kept him with me the whole time following the previous ceremony. Now do I press on with the ceremony straight away or is it worth waiting for his friends to turn up. As she thought that Glory became aware of an arrival in the next room.


	37. In the Dark

**Chapter Thirty Seven: In the Dark**

"Well that was a complete waste of time," said Cordelia as she led the way back upstairs. A thorough search of the Wolfram and Hart basement had revealed nothing. They had been able to find no information about the escaped demon and had not been able to find books of any sort, blank or otherwise. The basement had been completely cleared out. Wolfram and Hart seem to have moved house.

"I suggest we go back to the Stargate," said Giles. "We can return to Earth and Tara could perhaps orb us over to the Watcher HQ to get a suitable book for the demon capture spell."

"Not yet, I can't leave Kallistien without Willow," said Tara, or rather I won't leave Kallistien without Willow she mentally added to herself. "She might need me and I wouldn't be able to hear her back on Earth. Don't you think we should search the rest of the building before we give up?"

"That could take a long time," said Cordelia. "All those little offices. Is there any way we could use magic to speed things up?"

"Well I suppose we could we could try a..." began Giles doubtfully but he broke off as the light coming from above was suddenly blocked out by a large dark figure which appeared at the top of the stairs.

"What on earth is that?" asked Cordelia stepping back and trying to concentrate her power, or on Kallistien she thought. "Phew! What a stench!"

"Watch out!" shouted Tara as the figure rushed down the stairs at them.

Cordelia was unable to bring any of her power to bear before the figure cannoned into her and she was knocked backwards. Cordelia would have fallen all the way to the bottom of the stairs had she not been caught by Giles who was on the stairs behind her. Above her there was a sudden roar from the unknown creature as if it was in great pain.

"Back!" yelled Tara and now the darkness dramatically disappeared. Cordelia looked up and saw that Tara had jumped forward and was on the stair above her. From somewhere Tara had produced a sword, a flaming sword and she now held this out in front of her. It lit up the whole area. Tara made no attempt to swing the sword but held it firmly in both hands as a barrier to the large creature looming above her.

The creature, which was obviously some sort of demon, was too large to slip past Tara's sword in the space left on either side and was obviously reluctant to leap forward and injure itself. Injure itself again that is, because Tara had already drawn blood from the chest of the creature when she drove it back.

The creature was truly hideous, even for those who were familiar with the grotesque appearance of many types of demon. It was about nine foot tall and broad shouldered. It had a vaguely human shape in that there were two arms, two legs and a head but the resemblance was very approximate.

The mouth took up a large part of the face and was filled with dripping, blood red fangs. Equally dangerous were the long claws on each hand but the most striking feature was the eyes, also blood red and shining with black flecks. This was not simply another sort of dangerous animal. The eyes clearly showed the dark intelligence of the creature, the sheer malevolence of the demon.

The demon tried to reach past the sword and get to Tara but had to jump back onto a higher stair as Tara suddenly pushed the sword forward, keeping it raised high in front of her all the time. A deep throated rumbling came from the demon and Cordelia realised that the creature was laughing. "You can't save everybody with that sword," it said in its deep, rumbling voice. Without another word it turned away and disappeared back upstairs.

"What was that thing?" asked Cordelia. "I know it was a demon but was it the one we're after? And where did you get that sword from?"

"The sword's a magic trick I developed after the Hellmouth fight," said Tara. With a word she extinguished the flame and cleaned the blade but she kept the weapon in her hand.

"The Whitelighters all used flaming swords to defend the entrance to the Hellmouth," continued Tara. "I've worked out a magic spell so I can produce the sword when I'm faced with strong evil. One of the advantages of being both a witch and a Whitelighter. The demon might have been something left behind by Wolfram and Hart. Another one of those defences you mentioned."

"I don't think so," said Giles. "If I'm right then having that thing here is much worse than meeting any sort of Wolfram and Hart guard dog. But I don't think it can be the creature that escaped from the book. I think it relies more on brute strength and savagery than on a reserve of demonic power."

From above came the sound of crashing and the fall of a great weight.

"Whatever it is it sounds like it's in a fight," said Cordelia. After a brief pause to gather her magic power ready for use she led the way upstairs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Angel led the way inside the building, still following the increasing stench of the demon. Whatever sort of demon it was, it was obviously pretty big because as well as smashing down the front door, the door frame on each side had been damaged as the demon had shouldered its way through. And there it was; large, dangerous and coming straight at them!

Angel aimed a powerful kick straight at the throat of the thing. The blow would have instantly killed a human being but the demon shrugged it off and Angel found himself flying across the room into the wall as he was tossed aside. Before the demon could follow up its success it was in turn knocked across the room to smash into the wall on the other side. Drusilla had picked up the broken door and used it as a weapon by driving it into the torso of the demon with crushing force.

Angel sprang to his feet in time to see the demon bounce off the opposite wall and throw aside the shattered door. It was now advancing upon Drusilla who stood waiting for it in full vampire face. But suddenly the demon staggered to its knees. As it fell down Angel saw that Cordelia and Tara had come into the room behind it. Cordelia was glowing with power and she now repeated what she had just done. Holding out her hand she propelled a second blast of magic force at the demon, which knocked it to the ground, flat on its face.

Angel didn't think the demon was yet dead, but anyway did not intend taking any chances. He knew that many demons could quickly recover from what looked to be crippling injuries if you gave them the chance. He picked up a large fragment of window glass lying nearby and used it to chop into the neck of the demon. It took two more cuts before he was finished but he finally completed the decapitation and threw the head aside.

Giles had now joined the group and together with Tara and Cordelia explained to the vampires all they knew about what was happening. Angel explained how he and Drusilla had tracked the demon across town and how things were going back up on the spaceship.

"Are we alright now this demon is dead?" asked Tara directing her question to Giles. "Didn't you say you recognised what it might be?"

"I think it's a Kamanate," said Giles. "And that's very bad news."

"More so than any other demon?" asked Cordelia. "Don't tell me, let me guess. We're in Apocalypse mode again aren't we? Do Apocalypses really happen somewhere other than Sunnydale or do they just take place wherever we happen to be?"

"A Kamanate is a sort of soldier demon I think," said Angel. "Find one and you generally find a lot more not too far away. Now that the Kallistien witches are fully occupied with the Goa'uld, all sorts of demonic activity might be stirring. Demons that normally keep a low profile on this world might be taking advantage of the chaos."

"Well I think it's all down to Wolfram and Hart," said Cordelia. "And it wouldn't surprise me if Eve had something to do with it. Lilah says Wolfram and Hart don't want the Goa'uld to take over this world. Even if that's true she's probably quite happy for the demons to take over instead."

"Yes, but this has got to be some sort of diversion," said Giles. "Kamanates are all about chaos, not control. They're mercenaries. They'll be working for somebody or something, somebody who wants them to cause as much destruction as possible."

"Wolfram and Hart," said Cordelia.

"Yes, it might well be Wolfram and Hart," agreed Giles. "But it might be that the demon or Demon Lord who came out of the book has now done some recruiting of his own. Whoever it is, somebody's sending out demons to create chaos and keep us busy while they're doing something else. We've got to be very careful here."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"North? What is there north of the city?" asked Prue. "Where would they go?"

"There's nothing there," replied Lissie. "Well, no towns anyway, not for a long way. There are farms of course and a few small hamlets but otherwise it's just the country houses of the local bigwigs."

"She must be using one of them," said Piper. "She won't be doing another big event out in the open. Not after what happened the last time."

Lissie, with her link to the Key had detected its unveiling by Glory as she prepared to carry out the second ceremony. The plan was to take Lissie to the ceremony so that she could close down the Key. The witches would then repeat Prue's attempt to travel back in time and speak to their earlier selves in order to cancel out all of the changes they had made to the time line. That way it would not matter if Glory got to see Lissie, what happened now would be cancelled because it would not happen.

"Could you orb us to wherever Glory might be?" asked Prue only to be faced by Paige shaking her head.

"I never left the city back in the future remember," she said. "On this world I can only orb to where I've been before."

"But the city was... is... will be much bigger back in the future," said Piper. "That might be enough. Take them as far north as you can and let Lissie try to get another read on where the Key is from there."

"Them?" Aren't you coming?" asked Paige.

"Somebody's got to stay with Faith," said Piper. "Lissie's got to go to deal with the Key. You've got to do the orbing and Prue's got to give the orders. Seems it's down to me to stay behind."

Prue frowned at Piper. "If you'd rather I didn't..." she began.

"Don't be silly," said Piper putting on one of her oh so sweet smiles. "I'm quite happy not to be the big sister any more. I'm just kidding."

"OK," replied Prue still thinking about what Piper had said. Am I overplaying the big sister thing? Do they resent me taking the lead? When this is all over we'd better have a family conference to clear the air. Many a true word spoken in jest and all that.

"I'll get ready to do the travel back in time spell again for when you guys get back here," said Piper.

"And if anything happens to us and we don't get back, you do it anyway," said Prue.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Teal'c led the way through the ship, Phoebe followed with Willow and Xander and Buffy brought up the rear. Willow was now conscious but very weak. They had decided to bring her with them because leaving her behind would mean leaving somebody with her and splitting their already very small party.

Phoebe was using her flying power to support herself and Willow which meant that the two witches were actually floating through the ship an inch or two off the ground. Xander remained close to Willow ready to lend a hand if needed.

Phoebe had carried out a quick location spell to try to find the Gate but it had not been successful. "I probably didn't do the spell right, not having a spell book and the right herbs," Phoebe had explained. "The spell I used is not really designed for this sort of work anyway, sorry."

"I think the Gate will be not be very far away from Apophis's command center," Teal'c had advised. "Apophis will want to have it available in case he has a need to travel through a Gate. I think the second deck would be the most likely location." The second deck was therefore their current intended destination.

The plan was for Teal'c to pose as one of Apophis's Jaffa, something that was easy for him to do since that is just what he had been. The main danger was that he might meet somebody who knew him and knew that his loyalties had changed. Teal'c would try to explain away the others as Kallistians who were working for Apophis and who were reporting back on the current situation down on the planet.

"Hey, we've still got our radios," said Xander suddenly as he walked along. He pulled his radio out of his pocket. "We can contact our people back on the other ship, tell them we're alright."

Teal'c stopped and turned back to Xander. "That would be very dangerous," he said. "There is a high likelihood of any message being intercepted and blocked by Apophis's people. They might not be able to decode the message but they would then know there was an enemy aboard their ship."

"Hold fast!" ordered a Jaffa who had just turned the corner of the corridor behind Teal'c. He was accompanied by four others, all armed with staff weapons which they now aimed at the unknown intruders. "Identify yourselves! Give the password!"

"Help me!" screamed Buffy and rushed forward towards the Jaffa. "Don't let them escape!"

Buffy succeeded in her intention of puzzling the Jaffa long enough to allow her to get in amongst them. None of them realised the danger represented by the diminutive young woman. As Buffy passed the Jaffa leader she seized him with one hand and tossed him in amongst his colleagues. The five Jaffa suddenly found themselves in a heap, their weapons knocked aside and no longer aimed at the intruders.

Buffy now began delivering blows to the fallen Jaffa, quickly rendering three of them unconscious. Teal'c and Xander stepped forward to account for the other two. Phoebe did not get involved but stayed back and kept hold of the still groggy Willow.

A few minutes later, after securing the unconscious Jaffa inside a nearby room the group resumed their journey towards where they hoped they would find the Gate. This time Buffy walked at the front of the group with Teal'c. Xander brought up the rear and Phoebe continued to look after Willow.

Teal'c had already witnessed Faith and Drusilla in action so he was not surprised to see that Buffy was at least as formidable as either. Is it a question of inborn ability, training or some sort of magic he wondered? Drusilla is no longer human but Faith and Buffy seem to be completely human, or perhaps more than human. Can we use whatever methods these women use to make the SG teams more formidable or is Daniel Jackson right about his idea of a Chosen One, or Two or whatever?

Further musing was cut off as the group reached their first objective, the ventilation chute at the centre of the ship. This chute circulated air throughout the ship. It was not meant to be a way to move from deck to deck, even though it was large enough for a body to fit inside. It was simply a smooth metallic tube, with no way to hold onto the sides. The strong flow of air through the chute would make it pretty well impossible for anybody to brace themselves and climb up the tube.

Anybody normal that was but the group now assembled was far from normal. With Phoebe's flying ability to assist them the plan was for the group to ascend up to the deck where they hoped to find the Gate.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"There's no doubt about it, we're getting more people here," said Eve coming back into Wesley's room. "Every time the loop restarts there are more people about. There are two men on the desk now and a lot more people walking about outside."

"If I'm right about this place being a sort of demon larder it looks like the demon is catching more and more people back on Kallistien," said Wesley. "Or perhaps there's more than one demon."

"Well, the newcomers don't look or behave like Kallistians," said Eve. "How do you explain that? How come they fit into this false LA set up? I think these people are coming from LA."

"They're being fitted into an existing matrix," said Wesley. "None of them have any free will so it's not necessary that they come from LA, or even Earth. But they might not be real people anyway. It might just be that this world gets more elaborate, more detailed, every time a new loop starts."

"You're piling assumption on top of assumption," said Eve. "You don't know if any of this is correct. You don't even know we're here because of a demon. There might be something else going on."

"Yes I'm assuming," agree Wesley. "But it's pretty clear whoever put us here isn't on our side, whether it's a demon or Wolfram and Hart. We've got to get out of here and stop whatever it is they're up to."

'Our side,' thought Eve. At least he's no longer blaming me for all this. "Well we'd better hurry up and get on with it then," she said. "I'm fed up eating the same breakfast every day."

"You know, if these people are coming from Kallistien they're being fitting into what is our world," said Wesley. "An Earth type world."

"You already said that," said Eve.

"No, um yes, what I mean is this world wherever it is, is linked to us. It's constructed from our memories," said Wesley.

"Your point being?" asked Eve.

"Perhaps we have the power to change it," said Wesley. "You suggested we use those magic amulets. Perhaps we can use them to make a few useful changes to this little world. Something that will help us to escape."

"Something like a spaceship at the end of the street with the keys in the ignition," suggested Eve. "Or our very own working Stargate."

"Not exactly. I don't know how to fly a spaceship," said Wesley. "And anyway we might be in the wrong universe so a ship or a Gate might not be the right solution. But that's the right sort of idea. No, what I was thinking about was a library at the end of the street with a lot of very useful books about magic and demons."

"How about an on line connection over in the corner with access to the same information?" suggested Eve. Jenny was right she thought. Wesley's just like Giles. He'd be happy if he was living in the age of quill pens and inkwells.


	38. Talking to the Enemy

**Chapter Thirty Eight: Talking to the Enemy**

"OK, make the call," said Jack to Sergeant Paisley. "Let's give it a go. At least we'll be able to distract Mister Pop head."

Jack and Sam waited quietly while the sergeant transmitted his message to Apophis's ship. "They've acknowledged," he reported shortly. "I'll put them on the speaker."

"This is the voice of Apophis," said the voice coming from the other ship. "If you are ready to surrender to your god then speak. If not then prepare yourselves for destruction."

"Yeah, well I know the voice of Apophis and it's not you," said Jack. "But I expect you're listening aren't you Apophis? This is the voice of Jack O'Neill but I expect you already know that."

"I hear you O'Neill," said another voice. A typically deep, somewhat mechanical Goa'uld voice. "Even you, I will spare if you surrender now. Otherwise you and everybody from your world will be destroyed."

"The same old Apophis," said Jack. "A word of advice, you might want to throw in 'Resistance is futile' next time. There's a reason it's a classic and it's always good for a laugh. Anyway it's time to sing another tune. Listen to this old snake. We've transmitted bombs to all of your ships. We can blow them all up any time we feel like it. We haven't done it yet because we're the good guys and we don't want to kill any innocent people. But if you don't withdraw and take all your ships with you, we'll blow them all up and you with them."

"A poor bluff O'Neill," said Apophis. "If you could do that you would have already done it. The defences of my ships are proof against any such action. My Jaffa are even now taking possession of this planet. Very soon you will run out of allies."

"I rather hoped you'd say that," said Jack. He then turned to Sergeant Paisley. "Transmit!" he ordered. He made sure to let Apophis hear the order he gave. Sergeant Paisley was now transmitting the code to explode the first bomb aboard one of Apophis's ships.

"That's one down," said Jack. "That's just a demonstration. You know you can't hurt us here. Nothing you've sent against this ship has even scratched it. The longer you stay here the smaller your fleet will become. You'd better get out while the going's good."

Abruptly the connection with Apophis was terminated at the other end. Jack turned to Sam. "What damage did we do?" he asked.

"We blew the engines on one of his capital ships," said Sam. "It'll stay in orbit for the time being but it's not going anywhere in a hurry. The explosion shouldn't have caused any casualties."

Apophis had been right in his accusation that Jack was trying a bluff. But it was only a partial bluff. Whilst the group of witches still aboard Marduk's former flagship had agreed to cooperate in transmitting bombs aboard some of Apophis's ships they had only done so on the condition that their magic did not cause any human casualties.

Only small bombs could therefore be used and they had been transmitted to only a few of Apophis's ships. A major limiting factor was the availability of explosives which were of the right size. What was needed was something that would cause an explosion that was not too small and not too large.

The latter requirement ruled out using any of the major weaponry aboard the spaceship. What had been used had been constructed from the grenades and other explosives carried by the various SG personnel on board. Transmitting these explosives to an appropriate location had not been easy. In each case what was needed was a place where sufficient damage could be caused which would disable the ship. At the same time the bombs needed to be in an area where they were not likely to be noticed, were hard to find in the event of a search and were not likely to cause casualties.

With this in mind the option taken in most cases was to target the inner part of the ships' engines. That had been difficult for the witches because they had needed to be careful not to let the power from those engines blast back through the magic portals they opened. There had therefore only been a limited number of successful transmissions.

The witches had also found it more and more difficult to open and maintain the magic portals. They had needed to use increasing amounts of magic power to do so and they had finally declared it impossible to open portals any more. Jack's claim that he could destroy all of Apophis's fleet was therefore far from accurate.

Given time, more explosives could be obtained from the SGC but allowing Apophis to continue with his attack on Kallistien, without interference, was a big risk. Jack had therefore taken the decision to go with what he had now, even if it only disabled part of the Goa'uld fleet.

One immediate benefit of acting as quickly as possible would be to divert the attention of Apophis's forces, including perhaps his witches, from the ongoing battle planetside. This could prove something of a handicap for the Jaffa campaign down on the planet and make things easier for the Kallistian witches who were fighting the Goa'uld.

The question now was; would the bluff work? Would Apophis now withdraw his fleet? "Set off the next one," ordered Jack.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's the hotel," said Paige.

"What do you mean the hotel?" asked Prue. "What hotel?"

"That house over there, it's exactly where our hotel is back in the future," replied Paige. "Although it's a completely different building. This is countryside now but back in the future it's all part of the big city. Sometime in the future this house will be rebuilt as the hotel we stayed in back in the future."

Paige had orbed Prue and Lissie as far north as she was able, which was the location of the future hotel. They were now stood at the back of a large country house, in amongst a small copse of trees. The sun was still shining and they were able to see that the building was occupied. Armed guards were stationed at the rear entrance to the house. Guards armed with swords and spears who were obviously on the alert for any possible enemy attack.

"It's inside, the Key's inside," said Lissie. "I can feel it. Low down in the basement or cellars. They must be ready to start the ceremony down there. You've got to get me inside. I've got to be there."

"Can you get us in there?" Prue asked Paige. "Orb us into the basement or as near as you can get and Lissie can lead us the rest of the way."

Paige nodded. Deciding action would be its own reply she put her hands on her two companions and the three of them disappeared in an orb.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Daniel was now sleeping on a divan on the other side of the room. Glory had made sure he would remain unconscious until after the ceremony was concluded. After all that had happened she had no intention of taking any more chances than absolutely necessary.

Daniel meant well but he kept forgetting that he was only an observer. She didn't want him to interfere at the wrong moment. He might need to know things back in the future but if that still applied after the ceremony had taken place then she could tell him everything he needed, or rather everything she thought he had a need to know.

Glory was now ready to go ahead with the ceremony. This time the ceremony would continue until the Key had been fully charged, when she would use it to drive away the Goa'uld and make sure they stayed away. She had thought to use the power of the Key to destroy the Goa'uld but had decided that expulsion was a better long term plan.

Using magic directly to kill was against the code. Glory was nevertheless prepared to do it if necessary, if there was no other way. But tainting the Key with blood was probably not a good idea. She had no idea of what the long term consequences of that would be but it wouldn't be good so she didn't want to find out.

Anyway if she simply destroyed this particular Goa'uld invasion then sooner or later, most probably sooner, another Goa'uld would attack. She had no illusions about the Goa'uld. Killing one would not deter another and there were other Goa'uld out there who had more resources than Mitra and Ninurta.

No, what she needed was a permanent solution. One that would not just drive the Goa'uld away but would provide permanent protection for Kallistien. She wanted to avoid the need for visitors from the future to repeat the process she mentally added. Visitors from the future she thought. Of course the rest of them will be turning up before long. Best wait for them to get here rather than have them disrupt everything once we've started.

Since the preparations were all complete Glory decided she could afford a short wait. What she was waiting for didn't take long. She became aware of the arrival of Prue, Paige and Lissie in the next room. Glory continued to wait and was ready when the two sisters and the Keeper cautiously entered the room set aside for the ceremony.

As Prue, Paige and Lissie entered the room they saw Daniel still sleeping on the divan. Paige went straight over to him to make sure he was alright. "Don't worry about Daniel," said Glory. "He's fine. He's just going to sleep for the next few hours."

"We've got to shut down the Key," said Prue. "Or rather Lissie here's got to shut it down." Prue explained that shutting down the Key was necessary so that she could travel back to meet her former self and thus reset things to the way they were. "We can make sure there is no interference this time, no changing of the time-line. Everything from then on will go exactly the way it went originally."

"Will it?" asked Glory. "Do you really think you and the others will make no difference at all the second time round, however well you explain things to them? I don't. I think no matter how many times you try to do this 'reset' there will always be ways left for you change things. No, I've got a better way. And since there are seven of us and I've got the Key we'll do it my way."

"You're risking a great deal if you do that," said Prue. "What you're doing is different to the way it was before. We know it worked before. Doing it differently risks letting it all fall apart."

"You still don't get it do you," said Glory. "It didn't work before, not permanently. That's why you're here. What I'm going to do this time is do it properly. This time I'll make sure it is permanent."

"But that will unravel everything," said Prue. "It'll mean we don't have any reason to come back here. That will mean that everything we've done won't have happened. What you're doing now depends on us being here so everything will eventually unravel and we're back to where we started."

"Exactly! Either I get something permanent, which is what I want, or it all unravels and resets back to what happened before you came back in time," said Glory. "That's second best but at least I get things to be as good as they were the first time."

"It's you that doesn't get it," said Prue. "Think it through. Do it your way and things unravel and go back to the way they were. But we'll have no knowledge of what happened this time round because we've had no chance of speaking to our former selves. So we come back in time... again and we end up standing here... again. Who knows, maybe we've done all this before but we don't know it. What you're doing could create an endless time loop."

"No, it doesn't have to work that way..." began Glory.

Glory and Prue were now so engrossed in their argument that neither of them took much notice of the others in the room. Glory however had made sure to remain between the time travellers and the table upon which was placed the bowl containing the Key. The other six witches in the room, the other members of the Central Coven of Kallistien were also gathered around the table.

Glory had only glanced briefly at Lissie when she entered the room. Lissie was wearing a hooded cloak concealing her face, a precaution that Piper had suggested, but Glory had no doubt about her identity. However although Glory knew that Lissie was the Keeper she did not realise what power that gave to her. She was therefore completely taken by surprise, as was everybody else in the room when Lissie acted.

Up until then Lissie had stood quietly to one side, making no attempt to approach the Key or take part in the discussion. She did not really follow the argument between the two witches but she knew that anything to do with the Key was the Keeper's business and the sooner she got her hands on it the better. The sooner she took control of it the safer everybody would be.

"Key!" proclaimed Lissie suddenly, holding out both arms. "To me!" she commanded. The Key now rose out of the bowl into the air and moved rapidly towards her.

"NO!" yelled Glory holding out her hands. "To me!" she commanded and the Key stopped moving towards Lissie and wavered back towards Glory. For a moment the Key hovered between the two of them, Glory's greater witch power battling Lissie's greater affinity with the Key.

Both Lissie and Glory, as well as trying to bring the Key towards them had started moving towards the floating Key to take hold of it. As they did so the Key began to glow with a bright green light, brighter and brighter.

Just when it appeared that Glory would reach the Key first Paige took a hand. Holding out her hands she used her own power. "Key!" she ordered. If she could get hold of the Key she could give it to Lissie to close it down.

Normally Paige's power caused the thing called to disappear and reappear where she wanted it, usually in her hands. This time, either because of the nature of the Key or because of the other powers acting on it, the Key didn't disappear but it did suddenly move directly towards Paige and out of the immediate grasp of Glory.

Glory and Lissie were exerting their powers on the Key from opposite directions and their powers were largely cancelling each other out. There was therefore nothing to stop Paige's power from bringing the Key into her hands. Nothing that is except Prue's power.

With a sweep of her arm Prue sent the Key flying away from her younger sister and back towards Lissie. In the instant she'd had to consider the situation Prue had decided that she very much didn't want Paige to lay hands on the Key.

As far as Prue could work it out the Key had been involved in some sort of merging with Lissie/Dawn at some stage, a merging which was still in place back in the future. The Key might also have something to do with the transformation of Glory from witch to Hell God. She certainly didn't want anything like merging or transforming to happen to Paige.

The Key arrived in Lissie's hands but only an instant later Glory also laid her hands on it. As she did so Glory realised that she had made a terrible mistake.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Captain Wright walked over to Colonel Maybourne. "Everybody's ready to go. You've just got to give the word and we'll move in," he said.

Maybourne nodded and turned away. He walked over to where Lilah Morgan was sitting on a table in the middle of the room. "We're ready to go in," he said. "One last time, what exactly are you getting out of this? You're not doing all this just to settle a few old scores with Angel and his friends."

Didn't the senator tell you?" asked Lilah. "Wolfram and Hart are a vital part of the defence of this country. We provide vital information and we can do things, go places, other agencies can't reach."

"The senator said nothing about you being a government agency," said Maybourne. "He just told me to co-operate with you because we're all on the same side."

"Of course we're not a government agency," said Lilah. "We don't claim to be. You'll never find us on any official balance sheet. But we're just as much committed to winning the war with the Goa'uld as you are. Haven't we proven that?"

"Not to my satisfaction you haven't," said Maybourne. "I think you've got your own agenda and it only coincides with what the NID want in a small way. I don't know what you've got on the senator to get him to agree to work with you but I'll give you fair warning. Don't try a double cross. You won't live long enough to make it worthwhile."

"Troops!" called Lieutenant Johansen from across the room. The whole room fell silent and Maybourne rushed across the room. Johansen was the NID communication officer who was in touch with the various NID units which were now in place around the Sunnydale Slayer HQ.

"What troops, and where?" asked Maybourne.

"There's a troop convoy moving towards the target area..." The lieutenant continued to listen to reports coming in. "They're coming from the north... And another one... A second convoy moving up from the west... Armoured personnel carriers in both groups... Helicopter... two, three... maybe more... They're arriving above the target now." As he spoke the unmistakable sound of at least one helicopter close outside the building could be heard.

"Abort and disperse," ordered Maybourne. "Abort and disperse, all personnel. Transmit code Seven twice and then everybody get out of here."

Maybourne broke off what he was saying because in the middle of the room an incoming orb appeared. It cleared to reveal Leo Wyatt, Amy Madison and General Hammond.

Maybourne walked up to the General having decided immediately to try to put the best face possible onto what could be a disastrous situation for both him and the NID. "I'm pleased to see you sir," he said saluting. "Is this the SGC's new method of transport?"

As Maybourne spoke armed troops from General Hammond's command began to enter the room.

"Never mind that Colonel," said Hammond. "Perhaps you can explain what the NID is doing here and why you're about to launch an attack on one of the Stargates controlled by the SGC?"

"An attack?" said Maybourne looking around the room. He now for the first time noticed that Lilah Morgan and all of the Wolfram and Hart people had disappeared. He wasn't surprised. At least he didn't have to explain their presence. "Oh no sir, I think there are some wires crossed somewhere. We're here to stop an attack. We got wind of some strange goings on around here. We're here to help."

"And how exactly does it help to have all of the Stargates closed down and unusable?" asked Hammond. "What have you done Colonel?"


	39. Demons and Dreams

**Chapter Thirty Nine: Demons and Dreams**

"What are they?" asked Dawn as she stopped beside Kennedy. Kennedy who was leading the way through the city back to the witch HQ had come to a stop. Up ahead at the end of the street were a number of large indistinct figures. Even at this distance they didn't look to be particularly human.

"They're demons," said Connor who remained beside Dawn. "I've seen their sort before. I can take out one or two but you don't want to mess with that many."

"What sort of demons are they?" asked Kennedy.

"Does it matter?" asked Connor impatiently. "I don't know all the silly demon names but they're demons alright and they're hunting for prey. We can't hang around here."

"Just one more time," said Kennedy turning on Connor. "You get in my face just one more time and I'll..."

"They're Sk'rank demons," said Anya. "They generally operate in large groups. They usually work as mercenaries rather than on their own account."

"So how do you kill them?" asked Kennedy. "What are their weaknesses?"

"They're just general strong arm types," said Anya. "Break their necks, chop their heads off, sword through the heart, the usual sort of thing. All their vital organs are approximately in the usual place."

"Well they're skanky enough," said Gwen. "Phew!" By now there was a strong smell wafting towards them from the other end of the street. "But where have they come from? You can't exactly hide a bunch like that, not where there are a lot of witches about. Or anybody with a nose really."

"Somebody with power has brought them here from their own dimension," said Anya. "They have a world of their own. Anybody who wants to employ them has to be able to pay them and have enough power to bring them through. I've never had any dealings with them myself, too smelly."

For the first time one of the demons became aware of the group of people stopped down the street. It put its head back and began to howl. This attracted the attention of the other demons who started gathering around it. Others came out of nearby houses and alleyways to join the gathering.

"Let's try another route," suggested Kennedy with a glance at Dawn. I wouldn't mind a fight but Buffy won't be too pleased if I let anything happen to little sister she thought.

At that moment there was an explosion from behind them, in the north of the city where the main fighting was taking place. This was quickly followed by a series of lesser explosions.

"Sounds like the battle's getting closer," said Gwen with a glance behind her. "We can't go that way."

"No, but we've got to get back to the intersection and work our way round these demons. Follow me!" said Kennedy. She started off at a fast jog but almost immediately came to a halt. The intersection behind them had now started to fill up with more demons of the same type, doubtless attracted by the howling.

"Over here!" said Connor. "Climb up here. If they try to climb up after us we'll have the advantage of being above them."

Connor had ducked into a nearby alleyway. A dead-end which led nowhere but was at the bottom of a metal fire-escape construction leading up to the roof of the four story building. The others hurried to join him as the two demon groups started to move towards them from opposite ends of the street.

Gwen sent electric discharges towards each group of demons to discourage them while the rest of the group of travellers jumped or were helped up onto the first level of the fire escape. Gwen now turned and rushed after them. After replacing her glove she jumped up and Kennedy caught her hand to pull her up to join the others.

"OK, lead the way up to the roof. Try to find a way down on the other side if it's clear of demons," Kennedy called up to Connor who was already doing just that. Dawn, Anya and Gwen followed him upwards. "Go on," she added to Sergeant Rees who was waiting beside her on the first level. "I'll bring up the rear."

"Let's see if these things are bullet proof before we do any bringing up the rear," said the sergeant. As he spoke several demons turned into the alleyway and he cut loose with his automatic weapon. The demons were far from bullet proof. They might or might not be able to survive a burst of gunfire but it could certainly damage them. In no time at all, the alleyway was clear as all of the demons fled.

"Thought so. Nothing living can stand up to one of these," said the sergeant tapping his gun. "That'll discourage them from dogging us."

"Thanks for that," said Kennedy. "I hope you've really discouraged them and they're not looking to hit us somewhere else. They've probably gone looking for easier prey but we'd better stay alert. When we've got Dawn to safety I'd like to do a bit of hunting myself."

As Kennedy set off up the ladder the sergeant gave her a puzzled look before following. Hunting demons? Is she another one of those witches? She doesn't look that much older than Dawn and she's not so big but she seems to have something going for her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Piper searched through the two supply packs that she had with her, her own and the one carried by Faith. It didn't take long to make the preparations for yet another time travel spell so she checked once more that Faith was breathing easily and set out to search the dungeon area to see if there was anything useful lying around.

Piper's search produced an old chair in one of the side corridors but nothing else of any use. For want of anything else to keep her busy she then spent some time cleaning the chair and the room of the worst of the layers of age old dust. Finally she checked once again that Faith was breathing easily before sitting down beside the still unconscious Slayer who remained lying on the table in the middle of the room.

I'll need to find somewhere to top up our supply of drinking water before long she thought. I suppose I could do a little spell if I have to. If Faith stays unconscious for much longer I'd better try to get her to drink something. Slayer or no slayer she needs food and water. Finally with nothing else to fuss about for the time being Piper had started to nod off herself when she was woken up by Faith.

Faith had suddenly sat bolt upright and looked around the room. "Piper? What's happening? Where's everybody else?" she asked.

Piper, now wide awake, stood up. "Prue and Paige have taken Lissie to try to get hold of the Key," she replied. "Are you alright? You've been out for a few hours. You were too close when that bomb went off. You might want to take it easy for a bit."

"I'm fine, which is more than I can say about this outfit," said Faith examining the damage to her clothes. She swung her legs around and jumped off the table.

"Don't worry about me. This is the way I usually wake up from life threatening comas," explained Faith. "I spent more than six months in a coma once and was healthy enough to take on Buffy only a day after I woke up. There aren't any vampires around that need a good kicking are there? It's been a while since I slayed anything and I'm feeling...um itchy."

"Uh, no," said Piper. "Just me, so you'll have to find some other way to uh scratch."

Faith, on getting off the table, had stalked around the room, full of energy. Suddenly she stopped and put her hand to her head.

"Are you sure you're alright?" asked Piper. "You'd better sit down and I'll tell you everything that's happened while you've been unconscious."

"I'm fine," said Faith putting her hand down. "I was just remembering."

"Remembering what?" asked Piper.

"Slayer dreams," said Faith. "Slayers have these special jumbled up dreams. They're meant to be prophetic, to give some sort of message about the future. Only they don't generally make much sense of anything until after it's all happened."

"Dreams huh, like Phoebe's and Cordy's visions eh? There's a lot of it about. So how do you know which dreams are prophetic and which are just dreams," asked Piper.

Faith shrugged. "I just know," she said. "They're different somehow. See what you make of all this..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A search of the upper floors of the Wolfram and Hart building finally produced what they were looking for. A large, blank, suitably prepared book which could be used to imprison a demon. It had been found in the bottom drawer of a desk in an office on the second floor.

"Don't you think it's suspicious that we've found just what we need?" asked Cordelia. "This is Wolfram and Hart. There's always another plot within the plot. I mean why was a book like that just sat in somebody's desk drawer waiting for us to find it?"

"These books have a number of uses for somebody doing magic," said Giles. "For one thing spells can be copied into them. When properly prepared they don't wear out and they keep on expanding. You never use up the last page. You want to speak to the Halliwells about their Book of Shadows sometime."

Cordelia looked at Tara. "Remember we discussed this," said Tara. "You were going to start a spell book of your own."

"Oh yeah," said Cordelia. "I remember. Right after I bought my cauldron, big black robe and pointy hat." Cordelia has resisted some of Tara's advice about the sort of things a witch should be doing. It was the twenty first century for goodness sake. Shouldn't she be able to put together a 'PC of Shadows?'

The three searchers arrived back at the entrance where they met up once again with Angel and Drusilla. "The fighting seems to be getting closer all the time," said Angel who had spent the time with Drusilla reconnoitring around outside. "The Kallistians seem to be losing ground. We'd better get out of here unless you want to take part in the fighting. Where do you want to go to next?"

"Somewhere quiet," said Tara. "Somewhere we can do magic without being interrupted by demons, battles or anything like that. Our first priority is the demons. That's our business and I can help with it. After that you can think about what to do about the Goa'uld." And maybe I can get back to Willow she thought.

"Perhaps the library of the witch HQ would be best," said Giles. "That should be quiet enough. As soon as we..." began Giles but he broke off from what he was saying because, without a word or any explanation of what she was doing and why, Tara disappeared in an orb. Tara herself seemed to be surprised judging by the expression on her face as she faded from sight.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy and Teal'c were now using the same Jaffa and prisoner scam that the Scoobies had used when they first came through the Stargate onto Marduk's ship. This time of course the role of Jaffa was played by a real Jaffa. Xander, Phoebe and Willow followed a little distance behind them down the corridor, Willow now being strong enough to walk without assistance.

The group had succeeded in moving up to the second deck level and were now approaching the room where Teal'c suspected there would be an active Stargate. This, not surprisingly, turned out to be a busy part of the ship.

This worked in their favour since everybody they met was rushing one way or another, presumably busy on various errands connected with the battle going on down on the planet. Nobody gave the group a second glance since they, like everybody else, seemed to know what they were doing and where they were going.

Finally Buffy and Teal'c turned the corner into the corridor which contained the room where Teal'c thought the Gate would be located. There were two armed Jaffa on duty at the other end of the corridor in front of a door so it looked like Teal'c was right. Doubtless other Jaffa were inside the Gate room, if that is what it was. The group were all prepared for their play acting.

Teal'c, with his hand on Buffy's shoulder, followed the Slayer along the corridor towards the door. Suddenly, behind them Xander came around the corner in a hurry, looked at the guards and stopped dead. "Rats!" he exclaimed before turning and running back the way he had come.

The guards reacted as expected by starting forward after Xander. But they had forgotten about Teal'c and Buffy who had continued walking towards them. The guards didn't know what hit them. Buffy allowed the first to pass by and took out the second with a single punch. At the same time Teal'c used his elbow and then his fist on the first Jaffa to knock him unconscious.

On hearing the sound of falling bodies Xander peeked back round the corner to confirm that the guards had been dealt with. He signalled Willow and Phoebe to join the others.

A few moments later the door to what was assumed to be the Gate room opened and a Jaffa rushed out, in a hurry to get somewhere. He stopped dead as he noticed Teal'c and Xander dragging the two unconscious guards into a nearby room. He went to draw his sidearm but had no chance to do so as Buffy came up behind him. Once the three unconscious Jaffa were out of the way Teal'c used a captured sidearm to stun all three and ensure that they did not regain consciousness any time soon.

"OK, now for the Gate," said Xander leading the way out of the room to join the three women in the corridor outside. They were outside the probable Gate room, waiting for Teal'c who now led the way inside.

The room did indeed have a Stargate in place but to everybody's surprise the room was empty of people. No further playacting was therefore required. There was a desk with a video console and control board in the room. The console was still on, as if the man who had come out of the room had only intended to pop out for a moment. But the attention of the group was at first entirely directed towards the Gate itself.

The Gate was not active, not in the sense that it was connected to another Gate because the inside did not have the watery look of an active connection. But the Gate was lit up by a ring of energy flashing and sparking around the perimeter of the circle. The energy was green and glowing and sent occasional flashes from one side of the Gate to the other. And then suddenly the energy disappeared and everything went quiet.

All of the energy had stopped, leaving the Gate apparently unharmed. The video console and the indicators on the associated control board had gone out. The lights in the room briefly flickered but then steadied and remained on.

Buffy looked at Teal'c who looked back at Buffy. "You're the one who knows about Stargates," she said. "What's happening? Is it meant to act like that or is there something wrong with it?"

"I have never seen anything like that before," said Teal'c walking over to the Dial Home Device. Teal'c began dialling but the DHD did not respond, it was totally lifeless and the dialling had no affect on the inert Gate.

"Does that mean it's broken?" asked Xander. "Do you know any way to get it working again?"

"Major Carter may know what is wrong with this Gate but I do not," said Teal'c. "You are correct that it is not working. That green energy seems to have shut down the Gate somehow." Teal'c looked at Phoebe. "Could that energy be some sort of magic spell? Unless you ladies can reactivate the Gate we shall have to find another way to contact our colleagues."

Willow was in no condition to work magic for the time being. Phoebe therefore was left to try her magic alone. But despite trying several different spells aimed at getting the Gate working again it obstinately remained inactive.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wesley woke up and looked around him again. The time loop had restarted once more. But was it different this time? Had their efforts to change things worked? Wesley switched on the light and there it was. On the other side of the room was a desk and on the desk was a PC, a laptop PC. And right next to it was a printer.

Wesley went over to the desk and touched the desk and the equipment on it. It all seemed to be as real as anything else in this world. Behind him Eve entered the room.

"It's there, yes!" she said. "It worked. Well go on, turn it on! What are you waiting for? We only have a limited amount of time in each time loop."

Wesley sat at the desk and switched on the laptop. Over the next few minutes he found that the machine worked in exactly the same way as the laptop he had left in his apartment back in LA. He was able to establish a perfectly normal internet connection.

"Do you think you could send an e-mail to somebody back in the real LA?" asked Eve.

"Well I could try," said Wesley. "But how would I know it got there?"

"Well what you do is..." began Eve.

"I know all about the way e-mail works thank you," said Wesley. "But how will we know that any acknowledgement or reply comes from the real LA rather than from somebody trapped here with us in the time loop?"

"Ask them something only you and they would know," suggested Eve.

Wesley shook his head. "Won't work I'm afraid," he said. "This place is connected to us, to our minds and memories somehow. What we've just done proves that. If it's something I know the answer to then this place might be able to put that answer in any reply that we receive."

"I suppose it's not a good idea to send out something like that anyway," said Eve. "It might draw attention to us. It might make somebody realise we're not locked into the loop the way everybody else is, if they haven't already. Anyway it's not as if anybody back on Earth can do anything to get us out of here."

"They might," said Wesley. "If we could tell them where here is, which we can't. For the moment I'll restrict myself to research. Let's see if I can gain access to all of the demonic database information that we want."

"Wait a minute," said Eve. "What about news bulletins? Have a look and see what's happened in the world since we left. That should tell you if you've got a link through to the real world."

"Will it?" asked Wesley. "Or will it just give us a false impression of what's been happening. Like those newspapers on the street."

"Have a look anyway," said Eve. "If we're still here on the next loop we can see if things have moved on a day in the real world. If it's the same day all over again then we'll know it's just part of the loop world."

"Later," said Wesley. "First I'm going to try to find out what I need to know to get us out of here."

"Well I'm going for a little walk," said Eve. "To see if what we've done has changed anything else at the same time. I'll also look to see if we've tripped any alarms with whoever's running this place."


	40. Stasis

**Chapter Forty: Stasis**

"They're moving towards us," said Sergeant Paisley. "No doubt about it. The whole fleet is coming this way. Apart from the ones we've disabled of course."

"How many more can we blow up?" asked Jack staring at the screen in front of him.

"Another three," said the sergeant. "If all the bombs go off."

So far Jack had ordered that five of the bombs which had been transmitted aboard the enemy fleet be exploded. Four had exploded and one had been a dud. Either that or it had been discovered and neutralised before the detonation had been ordered. Of the four explosions three had disabled enemy ships and one had caused lesser damage.

"So he's got twelve ships left and we can only stop a maximum of three. Great!" said Jack. "We need some good news. OK, set off another one. Let's keep them nervous. And just when they think it's all over we'll do one more."

So far Apophis's fleet had shown no sign of doing what Jack had demanded and evacuating the system. No further communications had been received from the Goa'uld. The attacks on his ships had it seemed at last provoked a response from Apophis, this being the most likely reason for his current fleet manoeuvre.

At that moment Sam Carter returned to the Control Centre. "It's completely dead," she said. "I can't do anything with it. And it's not just our Gate. I've heard from the guard detail on the planet. The Gate down there is dead as well. The whole Stargate network might have gone down. I can't find anything wrong with the Gate but when you dial up, nothing happens."

"Have you tried kicking it?" asked Jack.

Sam ignored the comment. "I think there might be some sort of power failure or power loss," she said. "For some reason we no longer seem to have enough power to make it work. I've got some of our people working on emergency power hook ups. When the work's done I'll feed in as much power as I dare and see what happens."

"Think it's Apophis pulling some sort of trick?" asked Jack.

"I don't know, but probably not," said Sam. "Apophis wouldn't want to shut down his emergency exit."

"Not unless he could start it all up again whenever he wanted to," said Jack. "And who's to say his Gate's been affected."

"The officer in charge of the guard detail on the planet said the Gate down there was lit up with some sort of green energy display before it went down," said Sam.

"Just like what Colonel Marker reported for our Gate," commented Jack.

"Exactly, and as far as I can tell, at exactly the same time," said Sam. "If we haven't got it working before then, maybe Willow and the Halliwells can try some of their magic when they get back. This shut down might be some sort of magical affect. Still no news from Teal'c?"

"Nope," said Jack. "Nothing from Teal'c, nothing from Daniel and now we're cut off from the SGC as well. Oh and Apophis is gathering his fleet to go hunting bear. We're the bear. Any suggestions?"

"That might be the best news we've had for a while," said Sam as she sat down beside him at the controls of the ship.

Jack didn't say anything. He just gave Sam one of his looks and waited for her to explain further.

"Well a stern chase always takes the longest," said Sam. "If we head out at top speed before Apophis has his ships in position we might be able to lure his whole fleet away from the planet. That might give the Kallistians some breathing space."

"I like it," said Jack. "And Apophis is arrogant enough to come after us with his whole fleet. I should think we've really got up his nose this time. Let's hope this ship is as fast as anything Apophis has got."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Faith was running but not flat out. Even though Piper was on a horse close behind she wouldn't be able to keep up for long if the slayer really cut loose and there was no point in exhausting the horse.

By using her freezing power Piper had easily been able to 'acquire' a horse without being observed by anybody, but Faith had told her there was no point in stealing two animals. Faith had no experience of riding horses and anyway was satisfied that she could travel faster without one.

They had left the town quietly by the north road, trying not to attract attention. As far as they could see it was an ordinary day in the town. There was no indication that the insurrection planned by Glory and her supporters had yet started.

Once clear of the town the two travellers had sped up. By now they had passed into an area of thin woodland and were only visible to observers a short distance away. Most of the people they passed on the road took no notice of them as they encountered various carts, carriages, riders and groups of pedestrians going one way or the other.

Finally they saw ahead of them a group of about a dozen uniformed men, gathered around the next crossroads. It seemed to be some sort of road block because the soldiers were stopping and questioning people. Faith slowed her pace and dropped back beside Piper.

"What do you reckon?" said Faith. "Fight straight away or try to talk our way through first?"

"We can't afford the delay. I'll take care of it," said Piper. "Stay back here out of range," she added as she quickened her horse's pace towards the crossroads leaving Faith stopped in the road behind her.

If the soldiers had any intention of stopping and questioning them Piper gave them no opportunity to do so. As she rode forward she waved her hands and froze the entire military group together with the people they were talking to. She turned back to Faith and beckoned her forward.

Faith raced through the group of frozen people and down the road on the other side. Piper steered her mount around the outside of the immobile group and back onto the road behind Faith. The two women would be long out of sight by the time the soldiers unfroze. To any of them who had seen the women approach it would be as if they had disappeared right in front of their eyes.

"Think they'll raise the alarm?" asked Faith who once more dropped back to run beside the horse.

Piper shrugged. "Who knows? They look like locals rather than Jaffa but I suppose some of the locals work for the Goa'uld. I didn't see anything like a radio. If they're locals they might know enough not to get involved in witch business."

As she once more took the lead Faith was thinking about Piper and her power. Good job she's on our side she thought. How do you defend against something like that? Doesn't matter how big you are or how good at fighting, if Piper freezes you, you're a sitting duck, even if she doesn't decide to blow you up.

Piper was thinking about the Slayer. She knew that Faith was stronger and faster than a normal human being but her display of speed and stamina immediately after recovering from injury was still startling. She doesn't just run as fast as a horse thought Piper, she's got enough breath to chat away at the same time. She could make millions as an athlete. I suppose she's not allowed to because it counts as personal gain. Either that or it's never occurred to her.

The two women continued on their way along the north road. Finally they came out of the trees into a more open countryside, full of crops ripening in the fields although there were no farm workers in sight.

Faith stopped and Piper reined to a halt beside her. "There it is," said Faith. "That's the place, that's the place I saw in my dream."

Faith was pointing to a large house on the top of a hill to the left of the road. The house was a rather impressive structure some three stories high with large wings on either side of the center block. I expect it qualifies as some sort of royal palace thought Piper. That probably means plenty of armed guards.

The roadway leading up to the building met the main road a few yards ahead of where they had stopped. A few yards along the roadway was an arched gateway, barred by a closed metal gate. On either side of the gateway a high stone wall stretched away in both directions. There were no guards visible at the gateway although there was a gate house on the other side which might be occupied.

Faith led the way towards the gateway and rattled the gate. No response. If there was anybody about, they weren't making themselves known. Faith shrugged and with an easy leap cleared the gate in one jump.

Piper dismounted and led her horse towards the gate holding the reins. "Very good," she said. "But rather too energetic for me." With that she waved her hands and destroyed the locking bar that held the gate in place. "See, no need for any jumping about."

Piper now pushed the gate open, or rather she tried to push the gate open. But the gate, although no longer barred was large and heavy and perhaps rusted in places. It didn't move. It wasn't until Faith added her muscle power that they managed to get the gate open enough to allow Piper and her horse to come through.

Faith started off up the path towards the palace but stopped at Piper's call.

"Stop! There's something wrong," she said. "Everything's stopped. Listen! I can't hear those clickety insects any more, no birds chirping."

"I don't think they're really birds," said Faith. "But you're right, everything's quiet. Dead quiet. Hey, look up there!"

Piper looked up in the sky to where Faith was pointing. Just above the building one of the local 'birds' was just coming into land on the roof. But it hadn't actually landed. It was frozen in the air. Some force was holding it suspended in the air, in some sort of stasis.

"Looks like we're too late," said Faith. "Looks like it's already happened."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Connor led them across the rooftops and found a way down into the next street via another fire escape. He had considered going on ahead to check out the area for demons but changed his mind. The street below was full of local people and quite clearly they were not under threat from demons, or at least not yet.

This was the first time the group had seen more than the occasional human in their night-time trek through the city. What they saw now was a convoy, a refugee convoy of people fleeing the fighting in the north. The convoy was of pedestrians, carriages, carts and handcarts. The people were young and old, rich and poor, people who simply wanted to get themselves and their families to safety. In amongst the civilians were scattered groups of Kallistian soldiers, some of them wounded soldiers.

Connor waited for the group to come together as they all came down the fire escape. Finally Kennedy, who was at the back, joined the rest of them with a leap from the last landing.

"OK, follow me," said Kennedy leading the way across the street, weaving her way past the people and vehicles passing by. The others, starting with Connor, followed her.

"Wait a minute," said Connor grabbing Kennedy's arm once they were on the other side of the street. "We'll be safer with these people. The demons won't attack such a large group of people, especially since some of them are armed."

"We're not refugees," said Kennedy. "We've got to move faster than that. We've got to get Dawn to the Witch HQ. She'll be safe there."

"You don't know that. For all you know she'll be in even more danger once..." began Connor but he stopped abruptly because Kennedy, with a straight right hand, had knocked him out. Kennedy caught Connor's body as it fell and put him over her shoulder.

"Anybody else want to argue?" asked Kennedy. Nobody said a word, they were too surprised. "OK Gwen, you and the sergeant watch the rear. Now everybody follow me." With that Kennedy set off once again at a jog, not in anyway slowed down by carrying Connor.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I've placed the Colonel under arrest pending investigation but I don't expect him to remain in custody for long," said General Hammond. "Colonel Maybourne has good contacts and he'll soon find some way to weasel out of it."

After breaking the siege of the Slayer HQ the General, along with Amy and Leo, had gone into the house to talk to the people there. They were now comparing notes in the basement of the house where the general had been shown that the Stargate was no longer operating.

"But there's no longer anybody besieging you," said Major Larkham "So you should be quite safe now."

"We had our own protections anyway," said Gunn. "As the Colonel would have discovered if he'd tried to come in without an invite."

"I'm sorry this Stargate has stopped working as well," said Hammond once again looking up at the large circle which dominated the room. "We had a lot of green flashing lights and the Gate back at the SGC simply closed down."

"That's just what happened here, right after Anya took Dawn...erm..." began Fred who stopped in confusion because she suddenly realised that the two events might be connected.

"Right after what?" asked Hammond. "Are you saying something that happened here might have shut down the Stargate network?"

"The Key?" suggested Amy.

"You think Dawn had that Key with her when she went through the Gate?" asked Gunn.

"Key? What Key?" asked Hammond. "Please explain, because having the Gates down like this is putting a lot of our people in danger. As well as cutting off your people and our people on Kallistien, we've got other units cut off on other worlds."

Fred explained to the General about why Anya and Connor had taken Dawn through the Gate. "We had to do it because they were attacking Dawn with magic," she said.

"So you're saying it might be their magic that's shut down the Gate network?" asked Hammond.

Fred looked at Amy and Leo. "You guys are our magic experts. What do you think?" she asked.

"I think Wolfram and Hart wanted us to send Dawn through the Gate all along," said Amy. "For some reason they want the Gate network closed down. You'd better ask them why."

"Since this is a matter of National Security that's something I should be able to do," said Hammond sounding very determined. "If this Wolfram and Hart organisation have shut down the Stargates, there won't be a big enough hole for them to crawl into."

The General pulled out his cellphone and took the Major aside to put into effect moves against Wolfram and Hart. This at least was something he could do rather than just waiting for the Stargates to start up again, or not.

"I think you'd better tell me exactly what happened," said Leo quietly to Amy, Fred and Gunn. "I know about Dawn and the Key. If something as powerful as that has been activated..."

Leo stopped talking because just at that moment, right in the middle of the room, Tara appeared in an orb. A very surprised Tara.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Without Tara the group were not able to orb to where they wanted to go so they set out to walk to the witch HQ. Giles had explained the advantages of using the library of the HQ as the most suitable place to carry out the spell to bind the demon into the book.

"As well as being quiet and well protected, an additional advantage is we can ask for help from the Kallistien witches if we need more magic power to do the spell," said Giles. "Although I think Cordelia and me working together should be sufficient."

At that moment the sound of galloping hooves sounded behind them. They turned to see an open carriage being pulled by two horses careering out of control towards them.

Cordelia, Giles and Angel quickly got out of the way to allow the carriage to pass but Drusilla walked out in front of it and held up her right hand. To the others watching, what Drusilla was doing looked suicidal, maybe a reversion to her previous insanity but the vampire knew what she was doing.

The horses suddenly skidded to a halt right in front of Drusilla. She walked forward murmuring pleasantly to the horses and began to pat them both to calm them down. The others walked forward to join her and were able to see that the carriage was empty. The carriage had come from the north so the horses had presumably bolted because they had become frightened of the explosions that could still be heard going off in that direction.

Cordelia got into the carriage and sat down. "Now this is a lot better than walking everywhere. Who's going to take the reins?" she said.

"For the moment we need to walk these horses," said Angel. "We need to let them calm down and cool off. Having them with us won't help us to travel any faster, not for a while."

"But at least we can travel in comfort," said Cordelia who had now been joined by Giles in the carriage. "Hello, what's this," she added bending down to pick up a small glass vial from the floor of the carriage.

No sooner was the vial in Cordelia's hand that it began to glow brightly. She instantly dropped it onto the seat beside her and the light quickly faded away. Cordelia looked at her hand but it seemed to be unharmed. "You don't think Frodo left this lying around in case we meet any big spiders do you?" she asked.

Giles leant forward from the seat opposite and picked up the vial. He carefully examined it but this time it was not glowing. "Pick it up again," he said holding it out to Cordelia.

Cordelia took the vial in her hand again and once more it began to glow. "Why does it glow with me and not with you?" she asked Giles.

"It probably belongs to a witch," said Giles. "I expect it's a sort of bottled witch light and it only works if the person holding it is a witch."

"Since I'm the only one of us who can use it I'd better be the one to keep it," said Cordelia putting it into her pocket.

Meanwhile Drusilla and Angel continued to lead the horses at a walk along the road towards the witch HQ. As they did so their acute vampire hearing began to pick up the sounds of a great many people in the streets ahead of them. The sounds were getting nearer.

"We've got to get off the street," said Angel. "Something's coming. I'd like to see what it is before it sees us."

But even as Cordelia and Giles jumped out of the carriage, people began to run towards them. These people did not seem to be at all threatening but seemed to be running away from some sort of danger. The danger must have been very frightening because everybody was running back north, towards where the sounds of the fighting against the Goa'uld could still be heard.

"What's happening?" asked Giles who took the opportunity to grab the arm of a passing man. "What are you running away from? Is it the Goa'uld?"

"Monsters!" said the man. "They're horrible. They're eating people. Run for your life." With that the man pulled his arm free and followed the panicked crowd.

"Demons? I suppose we should investigate. That's what we do isn't it? Just like back in LA and Sunnydale," said Cordelia looking at the others.

"This place seems to becoming more and more like Sunnydale," said Angel. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked Giles.

"That somebody's trying to open up a new Hellmouth around here?" asked Giles.

"Or perhaps there already is a Hellmouth in this city," replied Angel. "And somebody or something very powerful is now taking advantage of it, now that the local witches are otherwise occupied."


	41. Broken Links

**Chapter Forty One: Broken Links**

"OK, it's risky but I think it'll work," said Wesley.

"No you don't. You're just saying that to cheer me up because we've got no alternative," said Eve.

"And just why would I bother to cheer you up?" asked Wesley. "It's your people who got us into this."

"They're not my people, for the last time ... Oh for goodness sake let's just get on with it. If we sit here much longer the loop will start again," said Eve from her position sat on the hotel room floor facing Wesley. I wonder why he thinks it's risky she wondered? Surely either it'll work or it won't? But do I really want to know the risks? Nope she thought. We've got to do something or we'll be stuck here permanently or until something comes to get us.

Wesley bit back any further retort and picked up the papers he had prepared. His plan was to cast a spell, the spell that was written in the papers he had in front of him. The papers were a printed extract from an ancient Babylonian spell book which Wesley had been able to find by using the computer.

The computer had been a success in that as far as he could tell he had been able to access the same information that would have been available to him back in the real LA. While Wesley had conducted his research Eve had walked around the area. She had reported that their little universe seemed to be otherwise unaffected by the changes they had made. She had not been able to spot any other differences in their distorted version of LA as a result of what they had done. But their imitation city was still getting a little bigger and a little more crowded each time a new loop started.

The idea of the spell was to break down the walls between their present reality and the world that was closest to it. Logically, Wesley had reasoned, the nearest world would be Kallistien, the world from which they had been transported. But of course he might be wrong.

Wesley knew that the risk was in not knowing exactly how the spell would take effect, if it worked at all. Would it simply open up a convenient door or portal for them to use or would it merge their pocket universe back into Kallistien? Would they find themselves back on Kallistien or would they simply be merged out of existence along with this imitation world? Well they would soon know. Either that or they would be beyond knowing.

Wesley opened his mouth to begin the Babylonian chant but before he could start, everything shuddered. Wesley paused with his mouth open.

"Was that you?" asked Eve. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," protested Wesley. "You're sitting right here. You can see I didn't do anything."

At that moment everything shuddered again. It wasn't an earthquake exactly because things didn't start falling from the shelves. It was as if the whole world wobbled as some sort of a pulse passed through it.

"What's happening?" asked Eve.

"I think this world is starting to break down," said Wesley. "It might have reached some sort of natural limit. We've got to make sure we don't disappear with it!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"They're not getting any closer," said Sam as she studied the instruments in front of her. "In fact I think they're getting further and further behind."

"So whatever's slowing us up is affecting them as well," said Jack. "Maybe it isn't some sort of Apophis secret weapon after all."

"It's not just affecting them as well. I think it's having a bigger affect on them," said Sam. "The ships at the back of Apophis's fleet, the ones that are furthest behind us, seem to be the ones worst affected."

"Theories Carter?" asked Jack. "Any idea what's going on and no, don't say it. Whatever you suggest, don't say it."

"Say what?" asked Sam puzzled.

"Magic," said Jack.

"Magic doesn't explain anything," said Sam. "Not for me anyway. Since I don't know how magic works it's just another way of saying I don't know." Sam had been in two minds for some time now. On the one hand finding out how things worked was part of who she was. The unknown had always been a challenge to her, particularly unknown science and technology. But magic? Did she really want to study magic? Wouldn't that make her a witch?

"But you do know?" asked Jack hopefully.

"Yes, um no of course I don't know the details but it's obvious that something is exerting a braking affect on all the ships travelling away from Kallistien," said Sam. "Logically that force, that power, is coming from somewhere on Kallistien. I don't know what it is but at the present rate we'll be brought to a halt in less than twenty four hours. Apophis's ships are more strongly affected because they're closer to the planet, closer to the source of the power. They'll come to a stop a few hours before we do."

"And what then?" asked Jack. "Do we stay immobile or do we get pulled back to Kallistien? Is it just stopping us leaving the area or does it want us back? And if we do get pulled back do we end up crashing into the planet?"

Sam shrugged. "At the moment your guess is as good as mine," she said. "But there's one thing we could try. It's dangerous but it might take Apophis by surprise. We could reverse course now and head back to the planet at full speed. We'd have to go back through the middle of Apophis's fleet but at that speed they'll find it very difficult to hit us. Even if they reverse course, as soon as they see what we're doing we'll have the jump on them so we should get back first."

"I like it," said Jack. "Apophis has only left his smaller ships behind so if we arrive back before he does we might be able to take them out before he returns. Just so long as we don't crash into the planet."

"I need to do some calculations on the way back," said Sam. "I'm hoping we'll still have enough engine power to manoeuvre safely when we get there. Otherwise we might have to bail out and put this ship in the middle of an ocean somewhere. But crashing might be the best result."

"Because if we crash then Apophis and his ships will crash as well?" asked Jack.

"Exactly," said Sam. "Losing this ship will be a good investment if we can take out all of his ships as well. I wonder how the ships Apophis left behind have been affected by whatever this force is that's coming from the planet? Anyway if the sergeant will tell everybody on board to secure themselves we can turn the ship around. The faster we do it the less time Apophis has to react so everybody should make sure they're well secured just in case our manoeuvres cause a little disruption."

"Just a minute," said Jack getting up from his seat. "Get ready to do all that, but before you start I want to have a word with the witches we still have on board. I've got an idea."

Jack realised the Sam was giving him one of her looks. "Yes Carter, it'll take magic but it's not a magic idea. You should watch more Star Trek. If it's good enough for the Klingons it's good enough for us."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After failing to achieve anything with their visit to the now dormant Stargate Teal'c had led the group of allies off in the direction of the nearest teleportation point. Their plan had been to use the teleportation rings to get back to Marduk's ship. It might even be possible to bring in others to help them in taking over the ship.

But before they reached the transportation point, activity on board the ship had suddenly increased considerably. Crew members and armed Jaffa had begun crowding the corridors and rushing around in all directions. Teal'c had found an unoccupied room in a quiet side corridor and the group had decided to stay there until the hue and cry died down.

It didn't seem as if the hubbub was anything to do with the group since nobody in the corridors had stopped and challenged them. Something else seemed to have stirred up Apophis and his people. But just in case, Phoebe had done a concealment spell on the door of the room to hide it from any search. The group had then taken the opportunity to rest and consider their options. At that point the group realised that the ship was in motion.

"The ship is accelerating," said Teal'c. "We must be leaving the planet."

"Does that mean Big Bad Apophis is running away?" asked Xander. "Or has he got to A-pop over to his nearest service station to fill up with gas?"

"If this ship is no longer in the vicinity of Marduk's ship or the planet we will not be able to use the transport rings," explained Teal'c. "Not until the ship arrives at its destination. And before we use the rings we will have to find out where the ship is going."

"Yeah, we don't want to transport down onto Apophis's home planet," said Xander. "How would we get home from there?"

"If we are indeed returning to one of Apophis's bases there will be another Stargate there," said Teal'c. "If that Gate is still working we may be able to use it."

"And if it isn't we might be stuck a long way from home," said Buffy. "We can't risk that and we can't risk being out of the action for too long. All the time we're stuck here we're doing nobody any good."

"If we are off on a trip to another planet, what are our alternatives? Isn't there some way we can leave this ship before we take a journey to who knows where?" asked Phoebe.

"The only other way to leave this ship is to take over control of one of the shuttles from the launch bay," said Teal'c. "But we cannot launch a short range shuttle unless we are close to a planet or another ship. A shuttle does not have sufficient range to travel between planets itself."

"So that's out. Anyway I suppose a shuttle could be blown apart by the weapons fired by this ship if Apophis suspected we were on board?" asked Buffy.

"It could indeed. So some sort of concealment would be in order, if that were possible," said Teal'c looking at Phoebe. "For the moment we must try to find out where the ship is going. We can then make plans."

"There's another way. What about it Will? Do you feel up to transporting us or at least opening up one of those magic portals?" asked Buffy.

"Not really," said Willow sadly, shaking her head. "I can do little things now but nothing like that for the time being I'm afraid."

"We might be millions of miles away from anywhere else by now," said Xander. "I don't think Will should risk it anyway, even if she was back to normal."

"So we either try to take over the ship and Apophis with it," said Buffy. "Or we lie low until this ship gets to wherever it's going."

"Not quite," said Phoebe. "If Willow could talk through details of the spell with me I should have enough power to open up one of those portals myself." Hey, who's the Charmed One around here anyway she thought. If Willow can do it then I can do it.

But at that moment Phoebe found it necessary to grab hold of a nearby table. She quickly sat herself down on the chair beside it.

"Are you alright?" asked Willow taking hold of her arm.

"I'm fine," replied Phoebe. "I've just had one of my visions. I just saw Dawn."

"My sister Dawn?" asked Buffy. Phoebe nodded.

"What exactly did you see?" asked Buffy anxiously.

"I saw her on Kallistien. She's in the capital," said Phoebe. "And she's in trouble. There are demons there, not just Goa'uld."

"What sort of trouble?" asked Buffy.

"Well she came through the Stargate..." began Phoebe but she stopped as Willow sprang to her feet.

"Tara!" screamed Willow. "Tara!"

"What is it Will," asked Xander rushing to Willow's side. "What about Tara?"

"She's gone! She's just gone! I felt her just disappear. I didn't know we were linked like that but we were. Something just happened to Tara. I've got to get back to the planet now." said Willow. "I've got to help her."

"Could she have gone back to Earth through the Stargate back on the planet?" asked Buffy.

"I don't know," said Willow. "But if that's where she's gone that's where I'm going."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was very easy to see the boundary of the area around the building that had been placed in stasis. There was a light breeze blowing but the blades of grass in the frozen area did not move. The area seemed to be a perfect circle with the building approximately in the middle of it.

Piper and Faith had walked all the way around the circle and back to their starting point. They presumed that the exact center of the circle was where the ceremony had been due to take place, where it had begun and where something had gone wrong.

"Well you're the witch," said Faith. "And this is magic, so over to you."

"Gee thanks," said Piper. "Nice to know you have such confidence in me."

"Isn't freezing time your speciality," asked Faith. "Why can't you like, unfreeze it?"

"Oh yeah, I can unfreeze time," said Piper sarcastically. "Now why didn't I think of that?"

Faith started to say something in response but changed her mind. She decided to wait to hear what more Piper had to say. Never start something you can't finish she thought. And never, ever start a fight with a witch if you can possibly avoid it she added to herself. Piper's a powerful witch. She might even be stronger than Willow. She's worried about her sisters. I'd better cut her some slack and not set her off.

"Well I might be able to unfreeze all this and I might not," said Piper. "But even if I can perhaps I shouldn't unfreeze it, not straight away. From what you saw in your dreams things have reached some sort of a crisis inside that building. I might make things worse if I simply unfreeze things. What I want to do is get inside and see exactly what's happening before I do anything."

"So how do you do that without being frozen yourself?" asked Faith. A simple test had shown that everything that came up against the boundary of the frozen area was frozen itself.

"That's where my power comes in," said Piper. "I've got to cast a spell on myself..."

"On both of us," insisted Faith. "You're gonna need me. I'm not staying out here."

"OK, on both of us," agreed Piper. "I've got to hope I've got enough power to protect us from the freeze so that we can get inside and see what's going on." Piper now looked around. "The first thing I need is a rabbit, or rather the Kallistien version of a rabbit."

Piper led the way into a nearby wood where they began searching for a small animal. After about half an hour of getting nowhere Faith had a suggestion: "How about you freeze the area around here yourself. That way they won't be able to keep out of our way and we can just pick one up."

This did the trick, although Piper had to release Faith from her freeze to help with the search. Finally Faith was able to find and pick up a small furry animal. It immediately came out of its freeze when she picked it up but she held it securely for Piper to perform her spell. The two women then went back to the area of the frozen building with the animal.

Faith tossed the animal into the frozen area. It was unaffected by the freeze and comfortably landed on its feet and bounded away.

"Well, my freeze protection worked for the rabbit thingy," said Piper. "So it should work for us."

"So long as you don't have to turn us into rabbits to make it work," said Faith.

Piper now drew a circle in the dirt and they both stood inside. She took hold of Faith's hand and chanted the spell intended to protect them both from whatever it was that had been responsible for the big freeze.

"OK, let's go inside," said Faith. "Let's find out what's being going on in there."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Connor didn't stay unconscious for long, even though he had been hit by a slayer. And when he woke up it took the combined efforts of Dawn, Anya and Gwen to prevent a full blown fight between Connor and Kennedy.

"Save the fighting for our enemies," said Anya. "We've got enough of them. Right now Kennedy's the leader and we'll follow her. But if she hits anybody again or if anybody else causes trouble I know a few spells that'll change your minds, and change a few other things as well."

"Magic!" said Connor.

"Yes magic," said Anya going eyeball to eyeball with Connor. "If you want to know what I'm talking about, Dawn will tell you all about the sort of spells I've learnt from Amy. She can tell you all about Amy the rat."

Dawn was finally able to pull Connor away from the confrontation and began talking rapidly and quietly to him. Meanwhile Kennedy set off again towards the Witch HQ. The others, including finally Connor and Dawn, followed along behind.

Kennedy meanwhile was still fuming. When it's Buffy or Faith giving the orders mister macho Connor does what he's told, but just because it's me he has to question all the time. Well if he wants to take on a slayer, even the 'number three' slayer she thought sourly, it's fine by me. He won't do it twice.

The group now finally entered the square where the HQ was situated. As she led the way up the steps towards the entrance Kennedy raised her right hand in greeting to the guards on duty. They acknowledged that they recognised her and indicated that she could enter.

Connor and Dawn were at the back of the group and were the last to reach the steps. It all happened when Dawn put her foot on the bottom step. The magic protective wards on the building started at the bottom step and for some reason they reacted powerfully to Dawn's arrival.

The whole building lit up as if it had suddenly been surrounded by a translucent blue balloon. At the same time Dawn, together with Connor who was next to her, was propelled backwards ten feet away from the building and onto the ground by a burst of force from the building. Connor sprang back to his feet immediately and turned to help Dawn only to find himself hit by a second blast of power and knocked aside once again.

The second blast came from Dawn herself. Dawn was now lying immobile on the ground surrounded by a bright green haze. It was from out of this haze that a green energy discharge had hit Connor.

As the rest of the group hurried back down the steps towards Dawn and Connor, soldiers rushed out into the square from the HQ and from nearby buildings. Quickly joining them were a number of witches who gathered in a group at the top of the steps.

It was Anya who realised what was happening. The Kallistians clearly thought that somebody was attacking their HQ. The witches were preparing to use their magic to strike back and their most obvious target was Dawn who was still glowing with power in the middle of the square.


	42. Strange Alliance

**Chapter Forty Two: Strange Alliance**

Since arriving by orb from Kallistien Tara had tried to orb back but without success. Something had brought her back from the other world or perhaps expelled her from it. Leo agreed that orbing between worlds should not be possible and it remained impossible for her to orb back again. With the Stargate network shut down as well, the most obvious means of return were not available.

Before trying to return, Tara had brought everybody up to date with how things were going on Kallistien, and was given the latest news from the people who had remained on Earth. But Tara was anxious to return to Kallistien as quickly as possible so when orbing failed she decided to use the magic portal spell that she and Willow had used previously. To make sure that there was no shortage of magic power she asked Amy to help.

To her great disappointment Tara found that the spell didn't work. Everybody, including General Hammond, was also disappointed because they had hoped to be able to re-establish contact with Kallistien.

"Whatever sent you back and shut down the Stargates is probably responsible for blocking the spell," said Amy, "because there's nothing wrong with that spell. Since everything started, or rather stopped, happening when Dawn went through the Gate my guess is it's all because of the Key. I think it's caused some sort of cosmic disruption."

"So what exactly is this Key?" asked General Hammond. "And how does it work?"

"Nobody really knows much about it," explained Tara. "All we know is, it's an ancient mystic power source than can sometimes be used to open doorways between different worlds. Magic or mystic doorways that is, not Stargate doorways. We don't know where it comes from or what else if anything it can do but it's very old and it's very powerful."

"But you've been keeping it here in Sunnydale?" asked Hammond. "Don't you think something like that should have been better protected?"

"Hey! Enough of the military mindset already," said Gunn. "The Key was here and it was properly protected. It's just that Wolfram and Hart put some sort of whammy on it. They could have done the same thing even if it was locked up in Ford Knox. They're the people who've caused the trouble. It's not like we lost the Key or had it stolen or anything."

"It's a magical artefact General," said Leo. "It has to remain with those who understand magic."

"We all thought it couldn't be used any more," said Tara. "Not after the last time."

"The last time?" asked the General. "What happened the last time?"

"That was all taken care of years ago," said Fred. "I don't think we should argue over what's happened in the past. We've got to decide what to do now."

"Wolfram and Hart," said Gunn. "We need to find Lilah Morgan and find out what she's really up to. Her people seem to know some things about the Key that we don't. They're the ones to blame for shutting down the Stargates. They're the ones who should know how to open them up again."

At that moment Tara and Leo both received a call, the same call. "We've got to go," said Leo. "Duty calls." With no further comment the two Whitelighters orbed away.

The discussion continued between the General, Gunn, Fred and Amy. The General had already issued orders for a team to take action against Wolfram and Hart. It was agreed that Gunn would meet the SGC team in LA and help them in view of his local knowledge and previous experience of Wolfram and Hart.

Meanwhile Fred and Amy would go to the SGC to talk with the scientists there about exactly how the Stargate network worked to see if there was anything they could do, magically or scientifically or some combination of both, to help get the network up and running again.

The General would be taking Fred and Amy back to the SGC with him and introducing them to the experts there. After that the General himself intended to have a further talk with Colonel Maybourne and the other NID personnel who had been taken into custody to see what, if anything they could say about what had happened and how.

"I'll leave the team here to protect this Gate," said Hammond. "The Gate's not working at the moment but we don't want to leave it unprotected for somebody to steal."

"All the time the Gate is in this building, it's well protected General," said Amy. "It would be very dangerous to leave some of your people here without any of us present. If they did the wrong thing they could do themselves a lot of damage."

"Well if you'll show them..." began Hammond.

"...all the defences. I don't think so," said Gunn.

"It doesn't matter what we show them," said Amy. "Most of it wouldn't mean anything to them. Unless the General has got a strong witch on his staff?"

"I'm not leaving this place empty," said Hammond. "I can't afford for this Gate to fall into the wrong hands. I'm officially responsible for it."

"It won't be empty," said Fred. "I can arrange for some friends to stop by for a few days. I'll have somebody here to look after the place before we leave. That way your guys can stay here as well."

In fact the 'some friends' was one particular friend. In response to a call from Fred, Lorne arrived the next day causing much consternation amongst the SGC personnel, despite their experience of dealing with non-human aliens.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The demons were taken by surprise. With the local witches otherwise occupied they had become used to the lack of organised opposition from the local population so when they were suddenly attacked by two vampires and a witch they were at first easy prey.

Both Angel and Drusilla used the fighting methods typical of experienced vampires. They moved fast and silently and attacked from the shadows and from behind whenever possible. Neither vampire was armed at first but all of the demons carried weapons so Angel was soon in possession of a large axe and Drusilla got hold of a broadsword.

Following behind the vampires, Cordelia and Giles quickly armed themselves with a couple of the lighter swords but did not look to join the vampires in close combat with the large demons. Cordelia used the sword that she had picked up to channel her power in the same way as she had previously used her magic wand. Giles kept close to Cordelia to make sure that she was not taken by surprise while she was working her magic.

The demons were of the same type as the one they had already killed at the local offices of Wolfram and Hart. As there were about a dozen of them in the group being attacked the smell was almost overpowering. "At least this isn't good old Sunnydale," said Cordelia. "We don't have to hide the bodies. I'm sure everybody around here knows that demons are real."

By now Angel and Drusilla had taken down two opponents each and were engaged in fighting two of those remaining. Cordelia directed short but strong bursts of power at two of the remaining demons in turn. This had the effect of causing each demon to freeze in place and shake all over before keeling over dead.

The demons, who had at first been encouraged by their superior numbers, now found those numbers much reduced. So much so that the last few survivors decided to flee to safety. But it was now too late. They were not fast enough to outpace the vampires who soon overtook them and finished them off.

"Still no trace of the demon master or demon lord or whatever," said Angel as he walked back along the road towards Cordelia and Giles. "Just the front line demon fighters."

"It's possible we won't actually meet him before we put him back into a book," said Giles. "We don't have to be in the close vicinity of the demon to make that spell work. Being in the same town is probably enough. It was when we did the spell to imprison Moloch back in Sunnydale."

"Ooh, pretty, look at that," said Drusilla pointing along the road in the direction in which they had been travelling. They all looked up to see a bright blue glow coming from a few blocks away and lighting up the sky.

"That's about where the witch HQ is located," said Giles.

"Doesn't that mean it's under attack?" asked Cordelia. "Magic attack?"

"Yes it does," agreed Giles. "That might be what the demon lord is up to. We'd better hurry, they might need us."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wesley and Eve were on a ride but they had no idea where they were going. The pulses that had shaken their world had kept on coming, so much so that Wesley had decided he had no hope of being able to carry out the lengthy spell that he had prepared.

Instead Wesley had decided to use an old general purpose magical protection spell that he remembered. Their priority now was simple survival. If they did survive they would see about getting home later. For the moment they had to concentrate on getting through whatever it was that was happening.

Wesley had Eve had already carried out one spell successfully so they did what they had done before to amplify the power of the spell. Without removing their magical amulets, the amulets made and powered by Willow and Tara, they held the two amulets together and clasped hands. That way they were both in touch with both amulets and were able to combine all of the available power.

The latest pulse passed through the room and this time it had a permanent affect. The floor tipped down at one end of the room. Now it sloped steeply and the furniture began to slide towards the lower end of the room. Wesley was by now chanting the spell. It was a short chant and after hearing a couple of repetitions Eve joined in.

Wesley didn't know if the spell would protect them or if they had enough power to make it work but he was pretty sure that the world itself was a magical construct. Their success in producing the desk and the PC showed that there was some truth in his theories about what sort of world they were in and how it was created.

That world was now being destroyed. It might be falling apart on its own or it might be under attack from outside forces. Something might have disturbed the flow of whatever power had been sustaining the world but whatever the reason, if things went on like this the world would not exist for much longer.

As they continued the chant Wesley noticed the first encouraging sign. Although the floor now sloped steeply and the contents of the room had slid down-slope, he and Eve were still sitting in the middle of the room. Not only that, but Wesley felt no tug towards the lower part of the room. It was as if the gravity of the room had changed for everything but them. They had not been affected.

The next pulse passed through the room. Eve and Wesley were now looking at each other and both realised that the pulses were not passing through them. The spell and the amulets must be protecting them. They were becoming increasingly disconnected from the world or at least they were not yet being destroyed with it.

Wesley glanced down and saw that he was no longer sat on the floor. He seemed to be floating upright in approximately the same position as the floor, but the floor, the whole room really, had started to fade. At that moment Wesley flinched. As he looked up a bird flew into the room. If flew straight through the wall, through Eve and at Wesley's head, but it passed through Wesley as well.

Eve was startled enough to stop chanting but Wesley continued. He raised his voice to emphasise the need for the protection spell to continue. After swallowing deeply Eve once again joined in.

By now the room had faded to a point where the walls had become transparent and they continued to fade away. What will happen when this world has completely gone wondered Wesley. Where will we be then? In the middle of nowhere? In some sort of limbo?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's... ridiculous," said Tara. "How can we possibly believe that? And if it's true how can we possibly tell everybody else?"

"You doubt the Elders?" asked Jenny. "You shouldn't, they don't lie."

"No, but they can be deceived," said Leo. "It's happened before. We've got to think this through."

Tara, Leo and Jenny had just attended a meeting of Elders and Whitelighters. The meeting had been called in response to recent happenings. Not only had the Stargate network been shut down but other means of travel between worlds and dimensions had been shut down or were becoming increasingly difficult to open and maintain.

It had been the Elders who had brought Tara back from Kallistien, something that they had only just been able to manage before it became impossible. The Elders had refused Tara's request that she be sent back. They explained that it was now impossible anyway.

"The people in Sunnydale think the Stargate shutdown has something to do with the Key, something to do with the spells cast by the Wolfram and Hart people and Dawn going through the Gate to Kallistien," said Tara. "Maybe they're right and that's the real reason for what's happening and not what the Elders think. Maybe the other side are using what's happened as an excuse to get what they want."

"It's probably a good thing the Elders don't think this is due to Dawn and the Key," said Leo. "At least nobody's talking about destroying the Key to put things right."

"They wouldn't do that," said Tara. "Not if they knew all about Dawn."

"I'd be surprised if the Elders didn't know all about Dawn," said Jenny. "And yes, they'd do that if they thought there was no other way. You heard them. They think the alternative is for this world and many others to be destroyed. You heard them. They're not just going by what the other side say. They've carried out their own investigation."

Tara looked at Leo who nodded. "Look at what the Elders are prepared to do to put things right," he said. "Or rather what they want us to do. They wouldn't have agreed to that if there was any other way."

Tara took a deep breath. "OK, we'd better get on with it," she said.

The three Whitelighters now orbed away from the meeting place and reappeared a few moments later in a large office. The woman in the room turned towards them as they arrived. "Well at last," said Lilah Morgan. "It's about time."

Before any of the Whitelighters could respond one of the telephones on Lilah's desk rang. She turned and picked it up. After listening for a moment she replied; "I'll be right out."

Lilah put the phone down and turned back to the Whitelighters. "I've got some military and security people downstairs who want to talk to me," she said. "Since I won't be able to work with you if I spend the next hundred years in a security cell you'd better orb me away to somewhere safe."

The Whitelighters exchanged glances. None of them spoke but Leo shrugged before going over to Lilah and taking her hand. He orbed away, followed a moment later by Tara and Jenny.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I should have thought of this before," said Jack. "Invisibility, invisible spaceships. You get them in all the best stories, cloaking devices and all that."

"Do you?" asked Sam. "When was the last time you saw an invisible spaceship?"

"Very funny, Carter," replied Jack. "Now we're invisible, sneaking back through Apophis's fleet should be easy."

"Don't celebrate too soon," said Sam. "We're not through Apophis's fleet yet, and he does have witches of his own on board. They might still be able to detect us."

Before reversing course Jack had spoken to the witches now working with them. At his request they had carried out spells to make the ship invisible to both vision and the instruments of the Goa'uld fleet. At the same time some of the witches did a spell to produce a phantom image of their ship. This image continued to flee from Apophis thus hiding the fact that they had now reversed course.

They were now approaching Apophis's ships, none of which had yet reversed course themselves. They were therefore approaching at a very high relative speed as they were travelling in the opposite direction to the Goa'uld ships. So long as they passed through the fleet without mishap they would arrive back at Kallistien several hours before Apophis, maybe longer if he kept pursuing the phantom they had sent into space.

"Now if we can just shoot off a few missiles as we go by," said Jack. "No more Goa'uld fleet, no more Apophis."

"And maybe no more Teal'c and the others," said Sam. "Anyway you know the witches don't want their magic to be used to help us kill. They won't be happy if we hide behind their invisibility while we wipe out the people on the other ships."

"Yeah, I know, but I can wish can't I?" said Jack who paused before continuing. "Perhaps I should do it anyway. The death of a few people compared to the death of many more, maybe a whole planet. Sounds like a good deal."

"And maybe our death too when the witches find out. Don't forget, one of the sisters is on one of those ships. And I wouldn't want to explain things to Tara if anything happened to Willow," said Sam.

"Tara?" she seems to be so quiet most of the time," said Jack.

"It's the..." began Sam.

"... quiet ones you've got to look out for," finished Jack.

"You might also be risking a war between Earth and the Kallistien witches. Do you want to do that?" asked Sam.

"You really don't want me to do this do you?" asked Jack.

"No, I... it would be wrong," said Sam. "We'd be betraying people who trust us. And it might not work anyway. Apophis's ships have got automatic defences. As soon as our missiles leave the ship they'll be able to pick them up. And it won't take much effort to track them back to our position. Don't forget, we aren't protected by the witch magic while we're moving."

"OK, you convinced me," said Jack. Jack was relieved to get Sam's input. He didn't want to blow up an enemy ship with Teal'c and the others aboard but he hadn't wanted to miss a trick simply because of his personal feelings. "Any closer to working out what's going to happen when we get back to the planet?"

"I'm hoping we'll be able to manoeuvre normally," said Sam. "Whatever force is coming from Kallistien it stopped working on us as soon as we turned back. At the moment we're moving under our own power and nothing else."

"So somebody switched it off?" said Jack.

"Not exactly," said Sam. "It's still pulling at Apophis's ships. It only seems to act on ships that are leaving the planet, which is crazy from a scientific point of view."


	43. In the Balance

**Chapter Forty Three: In the Balance**

Buffy and Willow were determined to head straight back to Kallistien and had quickly decided to charge through the ship to the Control Center and force the crew to reverse course. They had only been stopped by Phoebe's insistence that there was another way, a less risky and probably quicker way of getting back to the planet, or at least getting back to their own ship.

Phoebe wanted to make another effort to open a magic portal. "I've been thinking about it. Way out here in space I expect it takes a lot more power to do something like that. That's why it didn't work for me when I tried it on my own," explained Phoebe. "But if we all work together. If we put all we've got into it, and focus on the magic amulets as well we might be able to pull it off."

At least I hope so thought Phoebe. I can't see that launching a full scale assault on this big ship with just our little group is going to work. And if Willow's rested enough to try to take over the ship she should be rested enough to join in the portal spell. Worrying about Tara seems to have filled her full of energy again.

"There's something else we can try to get more power," said Willow. "Apophis has got his own witches on this ship. Except they're not his witches, they're witches he had kidnapped and has established some sort of control over. I think I can tap into their magic power and at the same time I might be able to release the control that Apophis has over them."

"You've got to be careful with the spells Will," said Buffy. "It won't do Tara any good if you overdo it."

"I've got to do as much as I can," said Willow. "Tara needs me. I've got to be there for her. I can rest again later. Anyway if I work this right, my part in all this might make me stronger, not weaker."

Still in their concealed room the five companions were now sat on the floor at the points of a pentagram drawn on the surface. Teal'c was wondering how he had come to be in such a position.

"Relax, don't worry about it," said Xander to Teal'c. "All the best people are doing magic spells. And I won't tell, not a word, not unless somebody asks me anyway. I've been helping out with magic spells for years and it never goes wrong, well not more than two or three times out of four."

"Xander!" said Buffy.

"Don't worry, Teal'c knows when I'm joking," said Xander. "I just wish I did," he added quietly to himself.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Stop!" shouted Anya rushing up the steps towards the witches. "You're not being attacked. It's all a misunderstanding. There's no danger. We're on your side."

Realising that nobody recognised Anya and nobody would have any reason to trust her Kennedy hurried up the stairs after her. She had met most of the witches gathered to defend the HQ and was able to reassure them that they did not need to act against Dawn or Connor.

Meanwhile Gwen had cautiously gone over to Dawn who was still lying on the ground. Dawn was still surrounded by a green glow but this was now slowly fading. Dawn sat up and looked around.

"Are you alright?" asked Gwen. "Seems like you've got your own sort of lightning."

"What? What happened?" asked a very confused Dawn. Suddenly she noticed Connor lying motionless on the ground nearby. She leapt up and rushed over to him.

"What did I do? What did I do? I didn't mean it. It just sort of happened," she babbled as she knelt down beside the young man. She reached out to touch him but then thought better of it and pulled back her hand. As she did so Connor groaned and rolled over onto his back.

The first thing that Connor saw when he opened his eyes was Dawn looking down on him. He immediately flinched away and sprang back to his feet. "Stay back!" he ordered. "You're alive with some sort of power. Don't touch me! Don't touch anybody!"

Dawn looked down at her hands where she could still see the last of the slowly fading green glow. What's happening to me she wondered? Is the Wolfram and Hart spell still affecting me? Is it going to get worse? Am I going to turn back into a green glowy Key?

"Whatever we do we can't take you inside the witch HQ," said Gwen. "Their magic protections don't like you, they won't let you in and the witches are certainly not going to lift them. We'll have to go somewhere else."

"Even if you could get past the magic wards, the witches don't want you to come in," said Anya joining them. "We've told them you're with us and on our side but they want you to leave the area. They think you're dangerous."

"Dangerous? Is that what I am?" asked Dawn. "What can I do? I didn't do anything. I just started to walk up the steps."

"So if we don't go inside where do we go now?" asked Connor. "I don't suppose the glorious leader over there's got any idea." Connor's final remark, together with a hostile look, referred to Kennedy who was still at the top of the steps talking to the witches.

"We can ask Giles!" exclaimed Dawn, suddenly cheerful. "And Angel. They'll know what to do."

"But Giles and Angel aren't..." Anya broke off from what she was saying to look behind her at what Dawn was seeing. Just coming into the square was Giles, together with Angel, Cordelia and Drusilla.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After searching through the building, Piper and Faith finally found what they were looking for in the basement. There they discovered Glory plus the other Kallistien witches together with Prue, Paige and Lissie.

Everybody was frozen. All of the women were stood about as if they were taking part in some sort of tableau. All of the Kallistien witches except for Glory were stood at one end of the room gathered around a table. On either side of the room were Prue and Paige. But none of these women seemed to be doing anything. They were all directing their attention to the middle of the room.

In the center of the room were Glory and Lissie. Floating between them was a vaguely box-like shape of approximately the size and dimensions of a gold ingot. The shape was not easy to discern because of the bright green glow given off by what Piper and Faith assumed to be the Key.

Lissie was holding onto the Key with both hands but Glory also had one hand on it. Lissie was surrounded by a similar green glow to that given off by the Key but Glory had her own glow, a bright golden colour which surrounded her, but even that was tinged with green.

"Stop!" said Piper to Faith who had started to walk around the room. "Don't go any further. Come back here!"

Faith stopped. "What? What's wrong? Or rather what else is wrong?"

"Can't you see it?" asked Piper. "You were about to walk right into it."

"Into what?" asked Faith looking around, still mystified.

"Look at Paige," said Piper. "If you look carefully you can see a white line of force going from her to the Key. You don't want to walk into that, who knows what'll happen."

Faith looked carefully but then shook her head before walking back over to join Piper. "Nope," she said. "Can't see anything like that. Must be something only a witch can see. Are you sure it's really there?"

"There's another line leading from Prue to the Key," said Piper. "I think what I'm seeing is the power that was being applied when everything froze. Lissie and Glory were using their power to fight for the Key. Prue and Paige joined in and that's when everything overloaded and seized up."

"So what do we do now?" asked Faith. "I'm thinking it's probably not a good idea for you to add your power to the mix."

"No I don't think it is, at least not until you've thought about it very carefully," said a voice from behind them. They turned around to find that Daniel had walked into the room behind them.

"So how did you get here? And why aren't you frozen?" asked Faith. "How come you're immune?"

"I don't know but I've got a theory," said Daniel. He explained how Glory had used him to hide the Key and how he had fallen unconscious after it had been revealed.

"I only woke up a few minutes ago," he said. "And that's when I saw all this. I've been having a look around wondering what to do. By the way, I can see those lines you were talking about. I managed to avoid walking into them."

"So why can you see them when I can't?" asked Faith. "You're not some sort of secret witch are you?"

Daniel laughed. "No, not as far as I know. I expect being in touch with the Key has made me more sensitive. I suppose that might be why I'm the only one who wasn't frozen."

"But Lissie's the Keeper," said Faith. "If the Key was going to make anybody immune it would be her, not you."

"Yeah, but Lissie's one of those using her power. She's part of what's causing the freeze," said Piper. "I expect that's what makes the difference."

"Or maybe it's Glory's magic that's been protecting you," suggested Faith to Daniel.

"Look, what's done is done," said Piper. "We don't have to have an answer to absolutely everything. We just have to decide what we're going to do about all this. Why do you say I shouldn't use my own power?"

"For the same reason you told Faith not to walk through those lines of force," said Daniel. "Everything's in a delicate balance. Until we know what we're doing we shouldn't just break it apart. There's a lot of power there. I think it's like an unexploded bomb. You've got to know which wire to cut first or you'll blow yourself up."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So why does it have to be here?" asked Jenny looking around at the familiar surroundings. "Why not somewhere else? Why not on the other side of the world?"

"Makes no difference to me," said Lilah. "You choose somewhere else and I'll get my people to make the arrangements. Where would you like it to be? Pennsylvania Avenue? Downtown Baghdad?"

"Before anybody does any choosing there are a few things we want to get straight first," said Tara. "Like what are you up to on Kallistien? Why did you send that book to Wesley and Cordelia? Why did you arrange for the release of a powerful demon and exactly what has happened to Wesley and Eve?"

"You've got your secrets and we've got ours," said Lilah. "You're not going to tell me everything you're up to and I'm certainly not going to tell you everything we're up to. This truce is strictly to do with the task in hand, nothing else."

"Is that so? Well think again," said Tara. "Because the task in hand isn't going anywhere until we get some answers." Leo and Jenny gave Tara doubtful looks but said nothing. Lilah noticed the exchange between the Whitelighters and drew her own conclusions.

"OK," said Lilah. "If you want to go back on the deal I'm sure your bosses will be able to find another Whitelighter to take your place."

"I'm sure they will," said Tara coldly. "But your bosses will have to find a replacement as well, because if you don't give us some answers you won't be available."

"Threats eh," said Lilah. "I like it. We could always do with another fallen angel. Exactly what do you have in mind? Going to do something nasty to me? Maybe something you've learnt from your girlfriend?"

Before Tara could respond to Lilah's taunting Leo stepped forward and took Lilah's arm. He immediately orbed away and a surprised Tara and Jenny followed him.

The destination was also a surprise to everybody but Leo. The three Whitelighters and Lilah found themselves on a narrow ledge above a hot fire down below. Smoke and unpleasant fumes arose from the depths and there seemed to be some sort of wailing that could just be heard coming from below. Everybody was in no doubt that the orb had taken the Whitelighters and Lilah into a hell dimension. Lilah was now no more than a short drop away from the fires below.

"Now let's get a few things straight," said Leo glaring directly at Lilah. "We won't be breaking any rules if we leave you here or drop you off down below. Your ticket is already booked. I don't think anybody will mind if you turn up a little early."

"I expect you'll find quite a few friends and colleagues down there," continued Leo. "There's nothing in the agreement between our bosses which says you have to be a part of it. I'm sure your side can come up with somebody else if you're uh, unavailable."

"Are you sure?" asked Lilah, now for the first time sounding rather nervous. "You're risking an awful lot if you're wrong. Your whole world for one thing."

"Which is also your world," said Jenny. "Despite what you say I'm sure you want to remain a player up in the world above and not become just another fallen soul down here. Not yet anyway."

"My wife is still on Kallistien," said Leo. "Unless you tell me everything we need to know about what's going on, you won't have to worry about what happens to the world up there, just about what's happening down here."

Lilah looked at the three Whitelighters one by one. Tara looked even fiercer than Leo and Jenny also look determined. Of course, she thought, they all have partners on Kallistien, not just Tara. So the other side have sent the only three Whitelighters who have people on the other world. Not a co-incidence I think.

"OK, OK," said Lilah. "But you're not going to like it."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The portal wasn't as large as before but using all of their power together they just managed to open it.

"Quickly, everybody go through," said Phoebe. "This won't stay open for long."

The first to move was Teal'c who was closest to the portal. He had to duck his head as he jumped through, Goa'uld weapon in hand. I wonder if his head would have been lopped off if he hadn't ducked low enough thought Xander as he followed. He had no intention of finding out and bent almost double as he hopped over the threshold.

Buffy indicated that Willow should go next. Willow thought about arguing but realised they didn't have the time. She jumped through and then concentrated on making sure that the portal stayed open long enough for Buffy and Phoebe to follow her. Immediately Phoebe arrived on the other side the portal winked out.

Willow took deep breaths and then sat down on the floor. "There's definitely something wrong," she said. "It shouldn't be this difficult. Something's going on. Something's making it more difficult to open portals."

"The same thing that shut down the Stargate?" asked Buffy. "Do you think somebody's trying to maroon us here away from home and if so who?"

"Anybody who tries to do that will have to do more than shut down the Stargates and block your magic portals," said Teal'c. "The ships we captured from Marduk can travel back to Earth. I think this ship is also in motion. It might also be leaving the planet."

"There might be some sort of space battle going on," suggested Xander who sounded excited by the prospect.

"If there is then what we did to help the witches break their conditioning might help our side a lot," said Willow. "They'll gradually come out of it. Apophis is going to find it more difficult to fight his battles without magical help."

Prior to carrying out the portal spell Willow and Phoebe had carried out a spell to break the control that Apophis had established over the witches he had kidnapped. This spell had succeeded but it hadn't made it any easier to open the portal. There didn't seem to be any connection between the witches working for Apophis and the difficulties they were experiencing.

Willow had changed her mind about trying to tap into the power of the other witches. On thinking about it she had realised that exploiting others like that without their permission would be too close to black magic for comfort. In the end it had their own magic power had been sufficient, but only just.

The team had now arrived back at the same place on Marduk's ship where Willow and Tara had opened their first magic portal, near to the landing deck and the Stargate. Using the nearest ship's communicator Teal'c was able to speak to Jack and Sam in the Control Center and report that they were back. Jack asked that they all come up to the Control Center where they could bring each other up to date and decide what to do next.

"So what's drawing us back to the planet?" asked Jack once they had arrived. "Is it some sort of magic force because if it is it must be using a lot of power to reach right out into space?"

Teal'c and the others had explained what had happened on their abortive trip to Apophis's ship including the shut down of Apophis's Stargate. Jack and Sam had explained what had happened in their absence.

"This has all got to be connected," said Buffy. "The Stargates are dead, we can't use the spaceships to travel to Earth and the witches are finding it difficult to open even a short range magic portal. Somebody's definitely trying to stop us leaving Kallistien."

"You think maybe somebody's up to something back home?" asked Xander.

"While the cat's away...," said Willow. "Some of us have got to go back. I've got to go back and find out if Tara's there, see if she's alright."

"But first we've got to get back to the planet," said Phoebe.

"Once we're near the planet we can send you down using the teleport rings, if that's where you want to go," said Sam. "But the Gate down there's dead as well. And I expect it'll be just as difficult to open a portal down on the planet as it is up here."

"Not necessarily," said Willow. "Some places on Earth are particularly favourable for opening portals. It might be the same on Kallistien. Weak points in the Ether so to speak."

"And there'll be a lot more witches to help us down there," said Phoebe.

"If they're not too busy," said Sam. "They're in the middle of a war. Anyway before you go I'd like to see if we can work together to get some response from the Gate we've got here. I've been building up the power input to the Gate but so far it stays dead. If you guys can put in some of your own special juice as well, perhaps we can jump start it. If it works it'll give you a quicker way home than going down to the planet."

"Not me, I've got to get down to the planet anyway," said Buffy. "My sister's down there somewhere."

"But there's no reason why we can't see what we can do with the Gate in the time we've got before we arrive back at the planet," said Phoebe.

"Of course even if we get the Gate working again that still leaves us with the unsolved problem of what to do about Apophis and his fleet once they get back. Are they still chasing our shadow out there?" Jack's last question was addressed to Sergeant Paisley who had been following the progress of the Goa'uld fleet on the instruments in front of him.

"They've just about come to a stop," said the sergeant. "But of course our fake ship is still going away from them. I bet they think whatever's been slowing them down is some sort of trick we've pulled."

"That's a good point," said Jack. "And of course they won't be able to see us when they get back. Let's see if we can organise a few surprises for when they get here."


	44. Being Hunted

**Chapter Forty Four: Being Hunted**

The three Whitelighters had returned from the hell dimension with Lilah. Leo had then, at Lilah's request taken her to one of the European offices of Wolfram and Hart.

"I can make all the arrangements for our side from there and it'll be easier to stay out of the hands of the US military and security people," she explained. "I'll call you when I'm ready to move. I've got to line up mages and shamans and make sure they've got everything they need to do the job."

Before she had been returned to Earth, Lilah had told them about what Wolfram and Hart were trying to do on Kallistien. Or rather the story she gave them was what she claimed was going on. She said that the actions she had taken consisted of a plan by Wolfram and Hart to re-establish a demonic presence on the witch planet.

"For a long time now the witches there have been able to pretty well squash any sort of demonic activity," Lilah had explained. "We expect them to get rid of the Goa'uld but we're taking the chance to strengthen our position for when things get back to normal. Our local branch has been pretty ineffective up to now. It's all part of restoring the balance. Isn't that what we both want?"

"You know and we know that you don't want that sort of a balance," Leo had replied. "And nor do we. We work for different sides. A proper balance means people have free will and the opportunity to live their lives without being preyed upon by the likes of Wolfram and Hart and various sorts of demons. So let's just cut the crap shall we?"

"What about Wesley and Eve?" Tara had asked. "What happened to them?"

"I don't know," Lilah had claimed. "When you release a major power like that demon you must expect it to do its own thing. I expect it's eaten them or stashed them away somewhere for future consumption." But I hope it hasn't eaten Wesley she had thought. If it has I'm going to miss him. Eve can be replaced.

After the questioning was over and he had taken Lilah to the European office Leo had returned to talk to the other two Whitelighters privately.

"You guys have got to play for time," said Tara when Leo returned. "Give me a chance to get back to Kallistien and tell everybody what's really going on. We need to get them all back here before anything major happens."

"You mean you don't believe what she said either?" asked Jenny. "I don't believe a single word that woman said."

"I don't believe everything she said," replied Tara. "But I think the main outline of what's she's up to is pretty clear. She wants to make sure all our main champions are absent and stay absent when we need them most. If possible she wants them to be stuck where they are permanently. She must have known ahead of time that communications would go down. She was keeping everybody busy on Kallistien until it was too late to get back. That's the real reason for releasing that demon."

"So you're saying we're going to need everybody back here when we..." began Leo.

"What do you think?" asked Tara. "I don't think it's going to be a picnic. We're going to need our best people, otherwise all hell breaks loose. I bet that's just what Wolfram and Hart really want. They're always working towards some apocalypse or other, according to Cordy."

"But we can't stall for long," said Jenny. "You heard what the Elders said. The pressure's building up. That's why they agreed to all this. The longer we put it off the more chance there is of everything falling apart. We can't take the chance of this thing going off on its own."

"And how exactly are you going to get back to Kallistien anyway?" asked Leo. "You can't orb back and we don't have any witches strong enough to punch a portal through against all the resistance that's built up."

"I've got an idea," said Tara. "I thought of it when you took us to that hell dimension. You didn't have any trouble orbing there. I can orb back there and then switch through the various hell dimensions until I get to the one nearest to Kallistien. I should then be able to orb up to Kallistien."

"That's dangerous, very dangerous," said Leo. "I'm coming with you. I'm not letting you do that alone."

"But if you come with me you'll make it even more difficult," said Tara. "I can't fight my way through. I've got to be sneaky. It'll be harder for two to sneak through than it will be for one. Anyway I've got an idea that might help."

"You're one of the few strong witches we've got left," said Leo. "We don't just need the others back we need you here as well. If only one person goes it's got to be me."

"It might be witchcraft which makes the difference," said Tara. "It means I have a better chance than you of getting through. No, I've got to do it," she said.

Anyway she thought, if I leave Willow alone much longer who knows what she'll do. She must be as worried as I am. I wonder if that's part of the Wolfram and Hart plan. Separate me from Willow and then try to turn Willow dark again. They never have only one reason for what they do.

"You and Jenny have to spread the word to all our people who are still on Earth," said Tara. "Tell them what's happening."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well the good news is the Kallistians have started to push back Apophis's forces in the north," said Kennedy as she came into the room. "The Jaffa stopped attacking a while back. They seem to have lost some of their magical backup. The bad news is the Stargates have stopped working, nobody knows why, not even the Stargate people up on the spaceship."

"Are the two things connected?" asked Cordelia. "Perhaps shutting down the Stargates has disrupted the Goa'uld plans in some way, made them weaker, blocked off reinforcements or something."

"It might have done but if it has it's probably accidental since it doesn't seem to be anything our people have done," said Giles. "It might be something to do with Dawn and the Key. Maybe the power of the Key, now that it's been activated somewhat, has disrupted the Stargates. I need to do more research about the Key."

"Either way there's nothing we can do about it at the moment," said Cordelia. "Do you think Angel and Drusilla are far enough away yet for us to do the spell to get rid of the demon? We don't want to risk putting them in the book as well."

"They should be fifty miles away by now," said Kennedy. "And getting further away every minute. I checked while I was upstairs. The train left on time alright and they were on it."

"That should be more than enough," said Giles. "If we knew the demon lord's name we could focus the spell properly. As it is we can do a general demon capture spell. We'd better get on and do it now. After that we need to search through the witch library to see if there is anything there about the Key."

A quick conference outside the witch HQ between the two groups which had met there had produced a number of decisions. By now Dawn no longer glowed but everybody had agreed that she should not make another attempt to enter the Witch HQ. As far as possible Dawn should be kept away from any use of magic power.

Angel and Drusilla had to be clear of the area before the demon binding spell was carried out to avoid being caught up in it. Angel, Drusilla and Connor together with Dawn were at present travelling south by train to an area that was still securely controlled by the Kallistians. This had the added advantage of separating Connor and Kennedy before any further conflict between them developed.

Everybody else stayed at the HQ. Kennedy and Gwen maintained contact with the Kallistians and kept the others informed about the progress of the war. Giles, Cordelia and Anya went to the basement library with the blank book in order to get ready to carry out the binding spell to recapture the demon lord who had been set free.

Sergeant Rees had joined the SGC team who were acting as a central communication unit elsewhere in the building. The SGC people were operating the military equipment brought though the Gate from Earth to help co-ordinate the fight against the Goa'uld. They kept in touch with the main fighting units and SG-1 up on the spaceship.

"Right, is everybody ready to do the spell now?" asked Giles. Kennedy had sat down in a chair by the door to watch the proceedings which involved Giles, Anya and Cordelia working together.

But Anya had been thinking through what had happened. "Just a minute," she said. "Before we do anything, let's get this straight. Dawn was attacked by Wolfram and Hart in Sunnydale. They left her only one way out, the Stargate. Dawn went through the Stargate and it stopped working."

"On Kallistien you guys got a book from Wolfram and Hart. Cordy did exactly what was expected and used her magic on it. That resulted in the release of a dangerous demon of some sort."

"Wesley tried to read the book, as Wolfram and Hart knew he would and he then disappeared along with Eve who was with him. Now you've got another book from Wolfram and Hart and once again you're doing exactly what Wolfram and Hart would expect you to do. Doesn't anybody else think this is a very bad idea? Isn't it about time we stopped doing what Wolfram and Hart want us to do?"

"What's the alternative?" asked Cordelia. "Let this big demon thingy run loose?"

"That's just it," said Anya. "That's the way these people operate. That's how I operated as a Vengeance Demon. You get people to make their own decisions but you arrange it so that every decision they make seems to be the only decision they can make. But every time they're doing just what you want them to do. They're making the decisions you want them to make. How do you know doing this spell won't allow this demon lord to appear right here inside the witch HQ and start killing the witches?"

"I see what you mean," said Giles. "So we can't risk doing this spell because it's likely they've got some sort of trap set up for when we do it."

"I said finding that book just when we needed it was suspicious," said Cordelia. "If we're going to do anything with a book I vote we get hold of another book, one that's got no connection to Wolfram and Hart."

"Either that or we need a completely different plan," said Giles. "Another way to get rid of this demon lord without taking the risk of playing into the hands of Wolfram and Hart. Anybody have any ideas?"

"Uh hum," came from behind Giles as Kennedy joined the discussion with a theatrical clearing of her throat. Giles turned to find Kennedy glaring straight at him.

"What we need is somebody who can hunt down demons and monsters, somebody who has special abilities and experience of killing them," she said. "Now just where would a Watcher find somebody like that? You'd have to find somebody who was specially Chosen and trained to fight the demons and vampires. Any suggestions?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's a beautiful country," said Dawn as she looked out of the train window. "It's a pity there's all this fighting going on." Because of the presence of Angel and Drusilla in the compartment the blinds were down but Dawn had taken a window seat and spent most of her time peeping past the blind at the passing countryside.

Connor was sitting in the seat facing Dawn. He shrugged. "Wherever you find people you'll find war and fighting, sooner or later," he said.

"Don't be so cynical," said Dawn. "These people have been attacked by the Goa'uld and by demons. What do you expect them to do? Lie down and die?"

"I'm just saying, appearances can be deceptive," said Connor. "Everybody thought Jasmine was beautiful and wonderful but she wasn't what they thought she was. Even the nicest people and the nicest places have a few nasty surprises for you."

"Don't you like anybody?" asked Dawn. "You can't go through life thinking the worst of everyone."

"That's not what I'm saying," replied Connor. "I'm just saying you have to be careful. I mean to look at you anyone would think you were harmless but..."

"But!" said Dawn sitting up and glaring at Connor, wondering just what Connor was implying.

"But you can take care of yourself," said Connor, make a swift change to what he had been about to say. I'd better not give the impression I blame her for what happened back at the Witch HQ he thought.

Drusilla had been dozing in the corner of the train compartment away from the window but now she suddenly sat up, attracting everybody's attention. "It's coming after us," she said. "It's coming after her," she added staring and pointing straight at Dawn.

"What's coming?" asked Angel. "Who's coming after us?"

"The demon," said Drusilla. "The big powerful demon. It can sense the power in her and it's coming to get it."

Connor pulled Dawn away from the window, much to her annoyance. "Hey, I'm a potential slayer. I've killed demons. I can take care of myself remember."

"How's it travelling?" Angel asked Drusilla. "How soon will it reach us?"

"I don't know how it'll reach us, but it's getting closer. I think it'll be with us soon after dark," said Drusilla.

"Well that'll be handy for you guys," said Dawn. "You won't have to worry about being out in the sunshine."

"We should get off the train," said Connor. "Now."

"While it's still daylight?" asked Angel. "I don't think so. Anyway the sooner we get off the train the sooner it'll catch up to us."

"We're vulnerable while we're on the train," said Connor. "If this thing's really powerful and it's catching us, then it can probably fly. We won't be able to outrun it. I expect it's powerful enough to destroy the engine and derail the train. It could kill us in a train wreck before we even see it. We've got to find a place where we can fight and where we can see it coming."

"It's a demon. Things like that are more comfortable after dark. It won't attack while it's still daylight even if it catches up before sunset," said Drusilla. "We've got a little time."

"Maybe it won't but what if it's not alone?" said Connor. "There are all those other demons about. They might not like it but if the demon lord tells them to attack us they'll attack us, even in broad daylight."

"We're coming into a station," interrupted Dawn who had slid back along the seat to her position by the window. "We can get off here. The station's got a roof. You guys should be safe enough."

Angel looked over Dawn's shoulder at the station just ahead down the line, being careful to stay out of the sunlight. "OK," he said. "We'll get off here and find somewhere suitable where we can fight, somewhere there are no innocent bystanders. Together we're strong enough to kill this thing, no matter how powerful it is. Everybody grab your stuff."

As everybody left the compartment Angel was already thinking about the coming fight. "Dru, what can you tell me about it? Did you get to see what it looks like?" he asked. "What sort of demon is it and how does it fight? Do you think it does have other demons with it?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The shaking had stopped. There were no more pulses passing through their small world, but that was because there was no longer a world to pass through. The destruction had continued to a point where the only things that remained were floating pieces of debris. Debris and two human beings; Wesley and Eve.

Wesley was still sat facing Eve and although he could see nothing beneath him he still felt as though he was sitting on a floor. He still had air to breathe and it still felt like there was a normal force of gravity pulling him down. But away from their little bubble of sanity everything else was chaos.

A lot of the things in the world had faded away but some things had simply broken up and now formed a mass of debris as far as the eye could see. A car floated by on its side over to Wesley's left, colliding with other pieces of junk before disappearing from view. On his right hand side, half of a bed fell downwards so fast it might have been dropped from a passing aircraft. It seemed to have been sliced neatly in two but there was no sign of the other half.

Many smaller items filled the atmosphere around them. There were many bricks and stones from buildings, including some large chunks of masonry and entire walls. Some things just floated nearby, others passed by, each on its own journey to who knows where.

As Wesley watched, a train of assorted objects flowed by as if in a stream of its own. A plastic dumpster led the way followed by what looked to be a complete, neatly cut front lawn. After a mass of assorted junk, bringing up the rear was a very agitated and still living chicken.

Wesley and Eve had stopped their spell chanting some time before. It might have had some effect to keep them and their little piece of reality together but there didn't seem to be much point in continuing with it now.

"What happens now?" asked Eve. "What caused all this and how do we get out of here? Do you even have any idea which way is up?"

"Well obviously something has broken up our little world," said Wesley. "Either that or the world wasn't strong enough to hold together any longer. It might simply have expanded too much and too quickly to stay together."

"Or maybe it doesn't respond well when somebody in the world starts to mess around with magic spells," said Eve. "Anyway, how come we're still breathing? If there's no more world why are we still alive?"

"A lot of the world's still here," said Wesley holding his hands out to the debris all around them. "It's simply in pieces. That must include the atmosphere."

"But that's not going to last is it?" said Eve. "If everything gradually floats away the air will thin out as well. How long do you think we've got? And where do you think this daylight's coming from?" Ever since the walls of the hotel had faded away the world had been lit by some sort of daylight. There was no obvious source for the light and no shadows. It was like a bright cloudy day but without any clouds to be seen.

Wesley shrugged. "Who knows," he replied. "I suppose some sort of rules apply to a place like this. All this stuff might just go on spinning around indefinitely. We might need food and water before we run out of air. If any more chickens pass by we'd better make a grab."

"I wonder what happened to all the other people in the world," said Eve. "I haven't seen anybody else, alive or dead, since this all started."

"Maybe they weren't real then," said Wesley. "Maybe they were only here as part of the background after all. They might have faded away along with so much else."

"Or maybe they're now safe and sound back on their own worlds and your stupid protection spell has meant we're stuck here," said Eve.

"And maybe they're all dead," responded Wesley, angry to be blamed for keeping the two of them alive. "And maybe they're in such small pieces that you don't recognise them as human. Instead of complaining, why don't you come up with an idea to get us out of here? Didn't you learn anything from Wolfram and Hart except how to be annoying?"


	45. Taking Risks

**Chapter Forty Five: Taking Risks**

"It's a risk but if we don't take any risks we might as well just sit down and grow old," said Piper. "Anyway I'll try to freeze everything again right away if things look like going wrong. If this works we'll be able to work with the Power of Three so we'll have a much better chance of keeping everything under control."

The plan proposed by Piper was for Faith and Daniel to grab Prue and Paige and pull them away from their link with the Key. To avoid unbalancing the whole ensemble the idea was to do this at exactly the same time. If the plan worked the two sisters would be released from the freeze but nothing else would change. They would then have all three witch sisters available to figure out their next move and take part in any further spell casting.

While Faith and Daniel grabbed Prue and Paige, Piper would remain ready to deal magically with any emergency that developed as a result of what they were doing. She hoped that Daniel's reference to a bomb going off wasn't an accurate comparison to their present position. She just hoped that whatever happened would happen slowly enough for her to stop anybody getting killed.

Neither Daniel nor Faith had any better suggestion. In particular nobody had any idea how to de-power the Key and make it safe. Nobody thought it a good idea for any attempt to be made to take hold of the Key and try to remove it from Lissie and Glory.

"Is there any way we can move Paige and Prue close together before we disturb anything?" asked Daniel. "If we can all be together when everything cuts loose perhaps Paige can orb us all away to safety."

"I don't see how," said Piper. "As soon as we move them we risk unfreezing them and disturbing the balance of power which might be what's keeping everything frozen. Anyway we can't just abandon everybody else."

But at that moment everything changed anyway because another power intervened. The house shook from a nearby explosion as it came under attack from the Goa'uld. The tremor passing through the room must have been just sufficient to move things a little out of alignment because all at once the freeze was over.

Glory and Lissie were both holding onto the Key and they continued to do so. It wasn't clear whether they even knew they had been frozen. The Key continued to glow brightly and now started to increase in brightness.

Paige, waking from the freeze, suddenly found Daniel standing beside her and realised that Piper and Faith had arrived as well. With time moving forward once again neither Prue nor Paige was power linked to the Key any more.

"Where did you guys come from?" she asked. "Did somebody else learn how to orb?"

"Explanations later. Everybody together quickly!" said Piper. "We're going to need the Power of Three."

There were now three groups of people in the room. The other Kallistien witches watched in horror at what was happening and then turned and fled from the room. The second group was the group of five time travellers who all now gathered around Piper and the third consisted of Glory and Lissie.

The Kallistian witch and the keeper seemed to be doing nothing except keeping their hands on the Key. They both maintained their grip but it wasn't clear to those watching whether they were doing this of their own volition, as part of a continuing struggle for possession of the Key or whether they were no longer able to let go of it. Neither spoke.

A second explosion now shook the building, and a series of explosions followed in quick succession. Cracks spread through the ceiling and lumps of plaster fell from it. A billow of dust swept into the room through the doorway left open by the departing witches.

"We've got to focus it," said Prue. "We've got to use the Power of Three to focus the power of the Key against the Goa'uld. All that power's got to go somewhere. If we can use it to get rid of the Goa'uld and seal the world against them that might de-power the Key. We can then use time travel again to return to the future."

"But aren't we meant to be just spectators?" asked Paige. "Things aren't meant to happen that way. We're not supposed to get involved."

"Are you sure?" asked Prue. "Maybe we are. Maybe that's why we're here. Don't forget, everything..."

"...happens for a reason," chorused Paige and Piper along with Prue who smiled at her sisters.

"But not always a good reason," said Daniel quietly to nobody in particular.

"All we can do is the best we can. We've been so involved in what's happened so far, our only hope is to be part of the solution," said Prue.

"Yes!" exclaimed Faith. Everything suddenly made sense to her. "That's why! That's why I was given that dream. If we weren't meant to be here I wouldn't have had the dream. Go on, do it! Be part of the solution!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tara knew the place from the description she had been given of it even though she had never been there before. She had orbed onto a wide rocky ledge overlooking a barren wasteland below. There were no bodies to be seen lying around, not even the large dragon bodies. The only evidence of the battles that had been fought at that spot some months before was the debris scattered around.

The ledge had been narrowed considerably by piles of fallen rocks which had been knocked out of the rock walls to either side. There was also a massive pile of rock at the base of the cliff where the ledge overlooked the plain below.

Tara waited. She was in a hurry but she figured the best way to move quickly, to navigate her way back to Kallistien would be wait a while, wait to be noticed. Of course in a place like this that might mean waiting to be attacked. But she didn't have to wait long. As she looked up into the grey overcast gloom she saw a small flying figure far away in the distance coming towards her.

As the figure closed on her position she could see it was not really that small. It was a little less than six foot tall and looked generally human. As the figure flew nearer Tara was able to see that it was a woman. She was dressed in a black shirt and black pants and looked to be completely human, apart from the large black wings on her back which were keeping her in the air. The approaching figure looked like nothing so much as a black angel.

The woman landed and walked towards Tara. As she walked forward the wings on her back faded away. She carried a sword in a sheath on her right hip. She kept her right hand on the pommel but made no attempt to draw the sword. As the woman approached, Tara realised that she recognised her.

"It's no good wearing my mother's face," said Tara as the woman stopped in front of her. "I know she's not down here and I know you're not her."

The woman smiled and waved her left hand in front of her face. The face blurred and then settled into the face of somebody Tara was sure she had not met before. The woman appeared to be approximately thirty years old. She was dark skinned, attractive without being beautiful and had long dark hair.

"Just letting you know, I know who you are," said the woman. "Exactly who and what you are Tara. What I don't know is why you're here. This isn't part of the agreement. You don't have any reason to come here, not unless you're changing sides?"

"I need to speak to Jasmine," said Tara. "She needs to hear what I have to say."

"She'll hear everything you say to me," said the woman. "Speak!"

"I need to speak to Jasmine herself, now," insisted Tara. "She'll want to hear what I have to say, not what somebody else decides to report to her."

The woman shrugged and her face blurred again and settled into the face of Jasmine, the beautiful face that she showed everybody when she was on Earth.

"One face is as good as another. So what is it I need to hear?" Jasmine asked.

Tara stared hard at what now looked to be Jasmine. Was this the real Jasmine or was somebody else trying to deceive her? This place was the home of lies and deception after all.

"You look like Jasmine, but you've proven you can look like whoever you want to look like. Prove you're really Jasmine," said Tara. "I'm not talking to anybody else."

The woman smiled and half turned away from Tara towards the barren plain. She waved her right hand and part of the sky darkened even further before giving out a spectacular burst of lightning bolts. Jasmine waved her hand again and a smoking mountain on the distant horizon suddenly exploded. An enormous roar followed a few moments later as the sound reached them.

Jasmine turned back to Tara. "Is that enough proof for you," she asked.

"Well you're powerful enough to be Jasmine but if you're somebody else you'll do just as well," said Tara. 'I need your help. But helping me is in your interest as well. I need your help to get to Kallistien. I've got to get all the Earth Champions back to Earth before the link up is made. You can understand why."

"I can understand why it's in your interest to do that," said Jasmine. "What I can't understand is why it's in my interest."

"Think it through," said Tara. "Do you think you can maintain control of this place, of your people, if there is no control on the other side? Yes, the Earth might be destroyed but if it is what do you think will happen down here then? This place is closest to Earth. It might be sucked in as well. Do you want to see your dimension destroyed as well as the Earth?"

"But even if it's not destroyed this place might become the next big demonic frontier. The place where all sorts of powers pass through," continued Tara. "You can imagine the sort of thing that would happen. There'll be a lot who want to stay here and control things from this end. They'll try to destroy or control you. Do you want that? But if we have our champions back on Earth we can keep things under control, it'll never happen."

"You underestimate me," said Jasmine. "Survival won't be a problem for me, nor will control."

"Do you really think so?" asked Tara. "Just suppose you're wrong. Why take that sort of a risk when you don't need to? You took the opportunity to take control down here. Do you want to give something else the chance to do the same thing to you? How many challenges do you think you could survive? Don't you want to do something more than fight off challenges all the time?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Demon hunting? Well that makes sense. Phoebe's vision showed demons on the planet," said Buffy. "Kennedy's a slayer. It's her job to hunt them down and kill them."

"Yes, Giles said the idea of going demon hunting cheered up Kennedy a lot. Slayers like to have something to slay after all," Willow replied with a small smile thinking that Buffy would love to go on an old fashioned vampire or demon hunt right now. Thinking about it, Willow wouldn't mind going along herself so long as Tara was there as well.

Willow was reporting back to the others after having a radio conversation with Giles down on the planet. "It seems Wolfram and Hart have been stirring things up again. They've let loose a lot of demons in the city while the witches are busy with the Goa'uld," continued Willow. "But the good news is Dawn's OK. Giles saw her after she came through the Stargate and she's with Angel, Connor and Drusilla. They're travelling south away from the city demons and the fighting with the Goa'uld. But he also said there's a problem with the Key."

"Problem, what problem?" asked Buffy quickly.

"Wolfram and Hart again," said Willow. "They attacked Dawn or rather they attacked the Key with magic back in Sunnydale. That's why Anya and Connor brought Dawn through the Stargate, to get her away from the Wolfram and Hart magic."

"What were they trying to do with their magic?" asked Phoebe.

"Giles thinks they were trying to turn the Key back the way it was originally," replied Willow. "The Key seems to be partly active now. Giles thinks it might be the Key that's messed up the Gates, since they stopped working just after Dawn came through."

"Wait a minute, Dawn's OK but the Key's partly active. How does that work?" asked Xander.

"As Giles explained it, Dawn's OK most of the time..." said Willow.

"Most of the time? What does he mean most of the time?" asked Buffy with a frown.

"It's just that she seems to be sensitive to magic power," said Willow. "She sort of glowed with power a couple of times when other magic was being used but it didn't last long and it didn't seem to do her any harm. That's why Giles thought it was a good idea for her to leave the city where the witches are based. He's gonna do some research in the witches' library to see if they know anything about the Key."

"Did he say anything about Tara, Will?" asked Xander. "Is she in the city?"

"He thinks she's fine. She suddenly orbed away without warning," said Willow. "But he doesn't know where she is."

"She can't be back on Earth," said Buffy. "The Gates aren't working and I think she said she couldn't just orb back to another planet."

"Some sort of Whitelighter business perhaps," suggested Phoebe. "We haven't heard from any of the Powers who watch over this world like our Powers do on Earth. Maybe Tara's visiting them."

"Maybe she's having tea and cakes upstairs," said Xander. "Sitting on a cloud and doing whatever angels do on their days off."

"I already know what Tara does on her days off," said Willow with a small smile. "But I still think something's wrong. If it wasn't she'd have been in touch. I've called her but I get no response."

"Time doesn't pass the same in places like that," said Phoebe. "If she's there she might only have been there a few moments. I'm sure she'll be back OK."

"And you'd know if anything bad had happened," said Xander. "So she must be alright."

"I suppose," agreed Willow doubtfully.

"The Stargate's still dead," said Phoebe. "Sam keeps feeding more and more power into it but it doesn't seem to make any difference. We're still cut off from home. Do you think Dawn will be able to use the power of the Key to get the Gates working again?"

"The last time somebody tried to get the Key to work it involved killing Dawn," said Buffy. "That's not going to happen, even if it means we all remain on Kallistien for ever."

The conversation was being conducted on the hanger deck of Marduk's flagship where Sam, helped by other SG personnel, had been working on trying to get the Stargate up and running. Seeing that Willow was telling the others the latest news Sam came over to find out what was happening. She had heard most of the conversation.

"So what exactly is the Key then?" asked Sam. "And how do you think it might have shut down the Gates?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"They're all fine up there," said Giles as he came into the library. "They're on their way back and should be with us in a few hours. But Tara's not with them. They don't have any more idea about where she went than we do."

"Has Willow tried to call her?" asked Cordelia. "She doesn't respond to me."

"Of course, but she's had no response either," replied Giles.

"Well if Willow can't contact Tara there's nothing we can do that would work any better," said Cordelia. "It must be something important that's keeping her away."

"I'm sure she's alright," said Giles. "I think Willow would know if anything bad happened to Tara. How's the spell going?"

"We have a problem," said Anya. "A big problem. Look at the map!"

Anya had indicated the large map that was spread out on the library table. The map was a map of the city and the surrounding area. There were small lights on the map, all of which seemed to be in the same part of the map and moving in the same direction.

Cordelia and Anya had carried out the old demon identification spell that Willow had carried out back in Sunnydale. When Willow had done the spell it had identified where in Sunnydale the demons were gathering. Now the idea was to identify the location of the demons in Demantine so that they could plan an attack on the chief demon and his minions.

"So which part of the city is that?" asked Giles leaning over the map and indicating the area where the lights were gathered. "And where are they all going?"

"That's the south of the city," said Anya. "And the demons are all headed off south."

"And none of them seem to be the big powerful chief demon thingy," said Cordelia. "That's probably because he's already off the map."

"South? They're all going south?" queried Giles. "But that's where..."

"Angel's taking Dawn," finished Kennedy. "The big bad and his demons are going after Dawn."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Jaffa pilot came in low over the trees. He was one of Mitra's elite and had been well briefed. He knew that the locals didn't have much in the way of anti-aircraft weapons, just what they might have captured from the Jaffa, but he had heard hair raising stories of what the local witches could do so he was on full alert.

The pilot was part of the attack on the country mansion where Prue and the others were currently dealing with the power of the Key. There had been no response to the bombs that he had already dropped. Nobody had fired back with any weapons nor as far as he could tell used any magic against him. But the pilot still did not intend to make himself and the troops aboard his shuttle a target for any longer than absolutely necessary.

The designated landing ground was the long wide lawn thoughtfully provided by the locals to the north of the mansion. It was ideal for a quick landing and exit. As soon as the troops had left the shuttle and started their attack on the mansion he would be up and away, ready to provide further air support if required.

The shuttle was the first of three such craft which contained the attacking force which had been ordered to capture the mansion. According to the briefing they had been given, the mansion was the HQ of the local resistance, so taking it out would go a long way towards pacifying the planet and making sure it was no longer such a thorn in the side of the Goa'uld lord.

The pilot never knew what hit him, or rather what he had hit. Half way along the lawn the shuttle hit something, an invisible something. It stopped dead. It was like ploughing straight into a cliff since the barrier didn't move at all with the impact. In fact the barrier had been moving towards them and was not slowed at all by the impact.

The shuttle was like a fly hitting a windshield. One moment it was going at full speed, the next... splat! The two following shuttles had only moments for their pilots to see what had happened and to try to pull out of their dives. They might have made it but the barrier was still picking up speed in its movement towards them. They had no chance. Splat! Splat! There were no survivors in any of the three machines.


	46. Unexpected Consequences

**Chapter Forty Six: Unexpected Consequences**

There were volcanoes in all directions although none of them were close enough to be threatening. But they were all steadily spewing out smoke, noxious gasses, volcanic ash and lava. A continuous rain of volcanic debris fell from the almost pitch black sky. The atmosphere was hot, fiercely hot and scarcely breathable. It was a good job that Tara was better equipped to survive in such conditions than most normal Earth humans.

The atmosphere, quite awful from a human perspective, was just perfect for the creatures that inhabited the place. A group of dragons soared on high, only visible from below because of their great size and the periodic blasts of fire that they sent at one another in the course of their own private conflicts.

There were creatures on the ground as well, dark and hard to see creatures that seemed to be perfectly at home grazing on something hidden on the ground beneath the layers of ash which covered the lower parts of their bodies. They might have had four legs but the legs were not visible.

Exactly what they were, Tara did not know and she had no interest in finding out. If this was the Earth there would be predators to eat the grazers but thankfully, so far there was no sign of any such creatures.

Hopefully this latest hell dimension would be behind her before she had time to find out anything more about the inhabitants. Tara intended to leave as quickly as possible, just as she had left all of the other hells she had visited.

The ground began shaking, but not strongly enough to make Tara fall over. It caused no alarm amongst the local denizens so Tara assumed that it was a perfectly normal occurrence. She knew that volcanoes on Earth were often associated with earthquakes so she assumed that the same thing applied in this place.

Tara found that her latest orb had brought her to a spot where the fallen volcanic ash came up to her knees. She thought about moving to a nearby windswept rock outcrop which stood out above the surrounding area and was largely clear of ash. But she decided against it. So far the local creatures had all ignored her. She wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. Standing up there might attract attention from creatures she would rather avoid.

But there was one local creature she wanted to see thought Tara as she looked all around her. Jasmine had agreed to arrange for local guides to meet Tara on arrival at each new hell dimension, to make sure that she moved on to the correct dimension in the sequence. So far this had worked exactly as arranged and Tara had been able to move onto the next dimension each time, hopefully getting nearer and nearer to Kallistien.

But now for the first time there was no guide waiting for her. The last of the weird creatures who had acted as her guides had not lingered after leaving her in her present location. It had immediately returned to its own world. Now Tara had to decide whether to risk waiting or whether to try to make her own way towards her destination.

Rather than just stand around doing nothing Tara extended her senses. Could she be close enough to Kallistien to sense it from her present location? Were Willow or Cordelia near enough to be detected? Was it possible that she was now just one orb away from where she needed to be? This was an underworld so it was connected to some sort of overworld. Could it be connected to Kallistien? And if it was would she be able to detect it?

Tara's mental searching latched onto something, a presence, a far distant but somewhat familiar presence. As she continued to try to concentrate on what it was she was detecting, she was distracted by a movement close to her. The local inhabitants were becoming aware of her and were moving towards her. It would be a big risk if she just orbed away into the unknown, but the risk of staying put for much longer was increasing all the time and there was still no sign of a local guide.

It was becoming clearer and clearer that no guide was coming. Something had gone wrong. Either that or she had been betrayed and abandoned. Would Jasmine have done that after arranging for guides to take her this far towards Kallistien? But had she really travelled towards Kallistien at all? Perhaps she was further away than ever. Was Jasmine simply playing a game?

No, that made no sense. If Jasmine had intended to betray her she could have done it many worlds ago. Jasmine had built up contacts with other hell dimensions but she had told Tara herself that her connections could take Tara only so far. Anyway if she was on completely the wrong track why would she be able to detect that familiar presence, whatever it was?

Tara knew that if she didn't leave the hell dimension soon she'd have to deal with the creatures which were now slowly moving to surround her. Individually they did not look to be very formidable but if they all attacked together she doubted that she could fight them off for long.

Tara concentrated once again on the far distant but familiar presence that she had detected. Or rather she concentrated as much as she could, bearing in mind the distractions around her. She now thought she knew who it wasn't but she still didn't know who or what it was. Could it be a trap? Trust nobody and nothing in a hell dimension had been Leo's advice. Good advice, but it could only take you so far.

Normally Tara, as a Whitelighter, was limited in whom she could detect from afar. In most circumstance she could detect the presence of the witches in her charge, such as Willow and Cordelia and orb straight to wherever they were on Earth. But for other humans she was more restricted. She knew she wasn't detecting Willow or Cordy, nor was it Anya or Amy. In fact Tara didn't think it was a witch at all. But who was it?

Tara's decided she had no choice but to orb directly to whomever it was that she was picking up. Whoever it was they were a very long way away and in a different dimension. It seemed to be another hell dimension, which was odd since she hadn't thought her senses could detect anything that far removed. She didn't even know whether she could orb that far but she did know she had to try.

Two of the demonic creatures suddenly leapt towards Tara at the same time. Although apparently acting independently the creatures had been working as a team and communicating with each other. But as they landed on their objective there was nobody there. Tara had orbed away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In the basement of the mansion the three witch sisters stood holding hands and concentrating on the Key. They were carrying out a Power of Three spell aimed at focusing and directing the power of the Key.

Nobody knew for sure but everybody suspected that the power of the Key was building up and up to some sort of climax. The aim of the sisters was to defuse the situation by sending the power out and away from the building before anything bad happened.

As the sisters completed their spell they stood back and watched as the power from the Key swept up and through the ceiling above, into the rest of the building. The bright glowing greenness took the shape of an expanding funnel as it rose upwards from where the Key was being held by Glory and Lissie.

As the power surged out from the basement it spread out laterally along the ground and upwards through the roof. It then continued to expand beyond the mansion. By the time it reached the outside it was no longer visible except to those with a great deal of magic power.

It was the invisible wall formed by this expanding force which met the incoming Jaffa shuttles and destroyed them, although this had not been the intention of the sisters. The power had not destroyed the mansion or the Kallistians in and around it but it reacted strongly to destroy the Jaffa attack force. The sisters had intended to direct the power of the Key in such a way as to expel the Goa'uld and their forces from the planet without bloodshed.

"Well something's happening out there. We're not being shaken up by any more bombing runs," said Daniel who had stood with Faith at the other end of the room watching what was being done. "You might just have stopped that attack. Is that all it takes to get rid of the Goa'uld? Three women chanting a verse of poetry and waving their hands about? All these years I've been reading the wrong books."

"Not just any three women," said Faith. "Three very powerful witches, plus all the power of the Key. You need more that a spell book. I don't think you can be a strong witch unless you're born a witch. The Halliwells, Tara, Amy, they all come from families of witches. Although come to think of it Willow and Cordy don't. Not as far as I know."

"Something in the genes perhaps," suggested Daniel. Faith shrugged.

As the affects of the spell continued the only thing to change in the basement was that the bright green glow around the Key continued to grow in intensity, so much so that everybody in the room had to shield their eyes. It was now pretty well impossible to see Glory and Lissie at the center of the bright green glare.

"If this glow continues to grow any more intense we'll have to get out of here," said Daniel. "Do you think this will really get rid of the Goa'uld and if so how long do you think it'll take?"

"Don't ask me," said Faith. "You now know as much as I do about magic. If you want to know any more you'd better go over there and talk to the experts."

"You couldn't know less than me," said Daniel. "I didn't know about vampires and slayers until I met you people." Of course if this works our next problem will be getting hold of the Key back in the future he thought. Or can we take it with us when we return?

Suddenly there was movement from within the green glow and Glory appeared. As she did so the glow from the Key began to diminish. She staggered forward and then sank to the floor. She no longer had her hand on the Key. That had presumably been left behind at the center of the glow with Lissie. Paige rushed over to Glory to see if she was alright.

"What have you done?" gasped Glory as she sat up and looked around to see what was happening. "What did you think you were doing? This is all wrong. It shouldn't be like this."

But it was like this and no power on Kallistien could change it. Outside the building the shell of force coming from the Key and set in motion by the witch sisters continued to expand. It had passed the point where it provided a physical barrier, so there were no more smashed shuttles or smashed people inside them but the force continued to cause the changes intended by Prue and her sisters.

Across the countryside, through the villages, through the towns and cities and across the oceans. The power was now moving so fast that nobody saw it coming and nobody noticed it go by, but after it had passed things were no longer the same.

All over the planet the Jaffa and everybody serving the Goa'uld felt a sudden panic come over them. It affected the Goa'uld themselves, those who were on the planet. It had no affect on the native population but all of the off-worlders felt an urge to leave the planet and go home. They simply had to leave and the sooner the better. Jaffa rushed to the nearest shuttles and the nearest transportation points, all other activities and duties forgotten.

Up in space the ships of the Goa'uld fleet had not yet been affected. The crews of the ships realised that something strange was happening but they could get no clear picture of what it was from the people leaving the planet. As Jaffa transported aboard the ships they were questioned about what was going on and why they were acting without orders but nobody could give a sensible answer. They just knew they had to get away from Kallistien and the quicker the better.

Not every offworlder was quick enough to get aboard the shuttles or in a position to use a transporter. But there was an operating Stargate on the planet. The same Stargate that would in later years be set up in the capital city. Every offworlder who could find no other way to leave, headed for the Stargate and left that way. This Stargate would no longer provide an point of access to Kallistien until the protection provided by the Key was no longer in place.

Down on the planet the power continued to rush forward until it finally completed its coverage of the planet and met itself. By now all of the Goa'uld and Jaffa on the planet had been affected. All of them had now left Kallistien or were making urgent arrangements to do so. But the job of the spell and the power of the Key had not yet completed the task that had been assigned to it.

The shell of force was no longer centred on the building containing the Key. Now it was centred on the planet itself and it continued to expand. It moved up from the surface towards the orbiting ships. Meanwhile on board those ships the initial confusion was settling down into something more sinister.

Mitra, the Goa'uld lord, had not been affected by what had happened. He had been aboard his flagship directing the suppression of the rebellion on the planet below. From the reports reaching him, confused as they were, something serious had happened. Undoubtedly it was something that had been done by the rebels and their witches.

Mitra realised that he had to act quickly. If he could not take control of the planet as it was he would take what was left after most of it had been destroyed. He issued orders to his ships. What he wanted was for all of the major population centers to be destroyed. That way he would be certain of killing most of the rebels and witches. He also ordered that all other known centers of resistance be obliterated from space.

But the shell of force continued to expand from the planet, up into the atmosphere and beyond. Before Mitra's latest orders could be put into effect it became clear that the confusion was still spreading. Ships in lower orbits were now heading away from the planet in all directions and without orders. They weren't just leaving the planet, they were heading out of the system at maximum speed. Nobody had yet launched an attack against the planet.

"What's happening!" demanded the Goa'uld lord of the advisors and commanders gathered around him. "What's causing this?"

"Our instruments say a wave of force of unknown type is coming at us from the planet," said the chief technician from his control seat. "It'll be here in a couple of minutes."

"Can you identify the point of origin?" asked Mitra.

"Yes, we think it's in the Eastern..." began the technician.

"Don't explain, just obliterate it. Fire everything we've got at that point," ordered Mitra. "And then get away from the planet as fast as you can. We can come back later when this force has dissipated."

But it was too late for the ship to get up to sufficient speed to avoid being engulfed by the approaching wave of force. As the ship sped away from the planet in company with those ships which had not already left, they were overtaken by the Power of the Key, a power that would make sure there was no return. A Power that would remove all knowledge of the witch planet from the Goa'uld and their record banks and keep the planet hidden for many years to come.

As the power continued to expand it reached the limits of the Kallistian solar system and stopped. To anybody looking towards the Kallistian sun from outside the system there was still a sun to be seen but no planets could be detected within that system.

Light was still on the way from the Kallistien sun towards the surrounding stars. That couldn't be altered since the light had been leaving the sun for millions of years and couldn't be called back. But anybody approaching the sun would see a system without planets. The system would seem to be empty and therefore not suitable for the attention of any would-be conquerors like the Goa'uld. This concealment and the blocking off of the Stargate would keep Kallistien hidden until the barrier established by the Key faded or was removed.

But Mitra's final orders had been carried out before the last of the ships left. Now there were missiles heading towards the house containing the Key. They had passed through the rising wave of force without being affected. The force was no longer a physical barrier. Since there was nobody aboard the missiles they were not diverted into space like the manned spaceships. There was nobody onboard to be affected by the panic now shared by everybody in the Goa'uld fleet.

Inside the house the bright glow from the Key had continued to fade. Prue looked at her sisters and saw that they all wanted the answer to the same question. Had it worked? Had the Goa'uld and all their forces been expelled from Kallistien? As the sisters exchanged glances Paige was the first to break the silence.

"Is that it, have the Goa'uld all gone? Has the Key been shut down?" she asked.

"You've driven them all away," said Glory, who had now recovered somewhat and got back to her feet. "But you haven't destroyed them. They'll be back."

"Yes, but not for a very long time," said Prue. "Not for centuries. And when they do come back we'll be there to deal with them. And they'll be a few others along to help us including our other sister."

"But you've changed everything," said Glory. "How do you know things will be the same? You might not even exist in the future."

"Well there's the finger in the river theory that says..." began Daniel but he was interrupted; what seemed to be an earthquake was now in progress.

"Power! You must be able to feel it?" Glory asked Prue. "It's coming up from below, way below. You've shaken something up down there, something dark."

"I can feel it," said Paige. "What is it?"

"You used the Key," said Glory. "The Key's got a lot of power of its own but if you went beyond that it would have taken power from wherever it could find it. It's drawn power up from below. Now you've got to face the consequences. We've all got to face the consequences."

"Talking of the Key where did it go?" asked Piper. "And what happened to Lissie?" The green glow of the Key had now faded to a point where everybody could see that there was no longer anything there, no Key and no Keeper.

Nobody had an answer to Piper's question and now the shaking of the building became more severe. The floor in the center of the room slowly rose up a little causing everybody to step back away towards the walls and hold onto them for support. As the floor buckled upwards the outline of a vaguely hexagonal shape became visible.

"Power from below?" asked Faith. "I don't like the sound of that. Could that be the entrance to another Hellmouth?" she asked indicating the shape on the floor.

"Hellmouth?" asked Daniel. "Another Hellmouth! What's a Hellmouth?"

"Now see what you've done," said Glory. "One of the main uses of the Key is to open up portals to other realms. That's what's happened. The things that can come out of there could destroy this world. You fools! Why couldn't you leave things alone?"

At that moment the Goa'uld missiles arrived.


	47. Reunion

**Chapter Forty Seven: Reunion**

Leaving the train station in daylight was a problem for the vampires which could only be solved by using that old vampire escape route, the sewers. But going underground was something Angel wanted to do for other reasons anyway. It had the benefit of neutralising the advantage possessed by the demon in being able to fly. However, after a lengthy walk underground he knew that they couldn't stay down in the sewers for much longer.

Angel led the way through the smelly, unpleasant tunnels. Dawn and Connor followed and Drusilla brought up the rear. So far there had been no sign or smell of any demon presence, either that of local demons and vampires or of whatever it was that was coming after them.

Angel had had centuries of experience in being hunted. The first priority was always to decide whether to fight or to run. These days Angel's first instinct was usually to fight since there were often others depending on him who he had to protect. But this time he would have preferred avoiding a fight. He was responsible for Dawn's safety and that could best be done by not meeting the demon at all. If he could keep everybody away from it for long enough then Giles's spell might trap it again.

Connor was thinking about the same thing. "Something's gone wrong," he said. "They should have done that magic spell by now. I bet it didn't work. You should never rely on magic. It always lets you down when you really need it."

"They were going to delay doing the spell until we were well clear of the city," said Angel. "You know that. But you're right. We can't rely on it. We've got to be ready to deal with this thing when it arrives. If it's now coming after us it might be beyond the range of the spell when Giles carries it out."

"Oh it's coming alright," said Drusilla. "And there's no spell gonna stop it."

Well so much for that hope thought Angel. Whatever this thing is it's got some way of detecting Dawn and it can move a lot faster than we can, even when we're on a train. Dawn will only really be safe from it after it's dead. So unless Drusilla's got this wrong we're gonna have to fight it. So where's the best place for us and the worst place for this thing and the demons it has working for it?

They had now reached a major junction in the sewers and Angel stopped. He knew the sun had not yet set so he and Drusilla couldn't yet walk around the streets. But this was a suitable place to exit the sewers as soon as it was safe to do so.

"OK, pop up topside and have a look around," he said to Connor. "You know what to look for. Somewhere we can't be overwhelmed by large numbers coming at us all at once and somewhere we can't be attacked from the air. And be careful."

"Why don't we just stay down here?" asked Connor. "This place fits the bill perfectly."

"Eeuw," said Dawn. "It might fit your bill but I'm not cowering down here with the local rats and all this crap. I'd rather be killed by a demon than die of some sort of plague."

"We can't stay down here much longer anyway," said Angel. "I can smell rain on the way. We can't be trapped down here when these tunnels fill up with water. You guys have to breathe even if Dru and I don't."

Connor nodded and went up the nearby ladder. At the top he cautiously opened the cover and exited the sewer. A few moments later he came back down. "It's nearly sunset and it's clouded over. You can all come up here without catching any rays."

Connor went back up the ladder and the others followed him up to ground level. They found themselves in the residential part of a medium sized town. As they began to look around the area a light rain began to fall. Angel once more set off leading the way.

"Keep watching the sky everybody," said Angel. Yell out if you see anything bigger than a bird."

"Are you looking for somewhere specific?" asked Dawn who briefly hurried her pace to walk alongside Angel. "Do you know this place?"

"Nope, never been here before. I'm looking for an unoccupied, solidly built house," said Angel. "A house with its own grounds and a cellar where we don't need an invitation to go inside. Somewhere we can cover all the entrances and not have to worry about any innocent bystanders."

"Well that building over there looks empty," said Drusilla pointing to the end of the street where a large, green, three story building could be seen above the thick wall which surrounded the house and its gardens.

"How do you know it's empty?" asked Dawn. "It looks the same as all the other houses on this street."

Drusilla smiled. "I cheated," she said. "That's the place where we fight the demons. I've already seen it. We might as well go there now."

"If that's the place the demons attack us why should we go there at all?" asked Connor. "If we never go there we should be safe."

"It doesn't work like that dearie," said Drusilla. "One way or another we'll end up there, whether we like it or not. I'm never wrong about something like that. If we waste time trying to avoid it, then we'll have less time to get ready to fight these things."

"Let's go," said Angel stalking forwards towards the house. He knew all about Drusilla's gift and knew it was futile trying to argue with her or it. Drusilla followed him.

"I'm sure there's something wrong with that logic somehow," said Dawn following behind Drusilla.

"Logic, I didn't notice any logic," muttered Connor as he brought up the rear.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What do you think happened to them Carter?" asked Jack as Sam Carter walked back into the Control Center. "Apophis left six ships orbiting the planet and they've all gone. Do you think that force pulled them down?"

Sam shrugged. "It's not pulling at us any more. But that doesn't mean it didn't pull them down," she said. "I've not been able to find any crash sites so far but it's a big planet and anyway they might have ended up in the ocean."

"Maybe it's had all it can eat for the time being?" suggested Xander who, with Buffy, Willow, Teal'c and Phoebe had followed Sam into the room. "Or maybe it's on our side and it only wants to destroy the Goa'uld?"

"An unknown ally?" said Sam. "It's not the Kallistien witches doing it, I checked. If somebody unknown with that sort of power was on our side why wouldn't they contact us?"

"These people don't have radio," said Jack. "If they don't have one of our sets handy maybe they don't have any way to contact us. Maybe it's some sort of independent witch group."

"No radio, but they can detect orbiting spaceships and pull them down onto the planet. That doesn't seem right," said Sam.

"No, it doesn't," agreed Jack. "We'll just have to see what happens next. I don't suppose you guys had any luck getting the Gate to work?"

"I'm afraid not," said Sam, shaking her head. "We've tried feeding in all sorts of power but nothing we do gets it working. We're still cut off from Earth. I'm beginning to wonder if the whole Stargate network has stopped working."

"Even magic doesn't help," said Phoebe. "Something's going on. Something is interfering with our portal opening spells and something has shut down the Gates. There must be a connection."

"They think it might be something to do with a mystic Key thing that came through the Gate on the planet just before everything shut down," said Sam to Jack.

"But we don't know," said Willow quickly before Jack had the chance to ask any questions. "There's a lot about the Key we don't know. We need to contact Giles and do some research. Anyway we don't have the Key with us here. It's down on the planet which is where we've got to be."

"We've got to go down there now anyway," said Buffy. "I've got to contact my sister, make sure she's alright."

"I'd like to know what my sisters are up to as well," muttered Phoebe. "They've been gone an awful long time."

"If you find out, let us know," said Jack. "I'm sure Danny is having the time of his life with your sisters but it would be nice to know for sure."

"There are one or two other things I need to talk to Giles and Anya about," said Willow. Like what happened when he last saw Tara and what actually happened to Dawn back in Sunnydale she thought.

Jack broke off from what he was saying because the ship suddenly lurched as if it had been pulled violently to one side and he had to grab the table in front of him to keep from falling down.

"What just happened?" he asked.

"We're falling," said Sam who was frantically engaged in working the controls in front of her. "Whoever's operating that tractor beam or whatever it is, they just switched it back on again. I don't think they're our friends after all. I'm trying to use the engines to pull against it."

"Where are we going?" asked Jack. "Where on the planet is this force coming from?"

"The city," said Sam studying the instruments in front of her. "The capital city. It's pulling us down onto the city. If we crash there we'll kill thousands of people, maybe hundreds of thousands."

"Transport us down now," said Buffy. "We've got to go down to the city anyway. Tell us exactly where that force is coming from and some of us will go see what we can do about it." But not me she added to herself. I'm going to find Dawn.

"OK," said Jack. "And we'll prepare this ship for destruction. From what I recall about Goa'uld ships there is a way we can do a self-destruct. If it gets to the point where we can't avoid it it'll be better than having this ship hit the city."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well that was a waste of time," said Amy. "We might just as well have stayed here and played around with the Gate in Sunnydale for all the good we did."

Amy and Fred had just arrived back at the Sunnydale slayer HQ after their visit to the SGC and were walking up the path to the front door. Fred had spent some time at the SGC talking to the Stargate scientists and Amy had tried various magic spells but nothing they tried had made any difference. The Stargate remained dead, just like the Gate back in Sunnydale.

"Well it was great to talk to all those experts about how the Gates work," said Fred. "I know a lot more now about the practical application of wormhole theory and how the curvature of the..."

Fred broke off since from her expression Amy obviously didn't share Fred's opinion about the interesting nature of the science of physics and its applications.

"Oh yeah, great," said Amy. "And it got us exactly nowhere. So what do we do now? And how do we get our people back if the Gates remain down and we can't open up any magic portals?"

"The General said they know some friendly aliens who have their own spaceships," said Fred. "Without the Gates they don't have any way of contacting them. But he expects the aliens will contact the SGC sooner or later."

"Don't count on it," said Amy. "If it was just some sort of technical hitch with the Gates then OK, spaceships might not be affected. But whatever has happened has affected magic as well so it might have affected spaceships too. We just don't know about it yet because we don't have any ships ourselves."

"You're saying whatever's happened might have affected the fundamental laws of the universe and made wormhole and interstellar travel an impossibility?" said Fred.

"Uh, no. You're saying that," said Amy. "I just said don't count on it because we don't really know what's happened."

The two women had been talking on their way leading up to the house. Now they went in the front door to be immediately greeted by Lorne, who had been minding the shop in their absence. They went into the nearby lounge to sit down and talk so that they could bring him up to date on how things were.

"Don't worry about it," said Lorne. "There are some mighty special people over in that other world. When they're ready to come back they'll find a way. They've got some serious power between them. Anyway it's not as if there was another pending apocalypse facing us."

At that exact moment the house was shaken by a powerful earth tremor. It lasted for a full ninety seconds before quietening down.

"Good job we've got the safety spells on this place," said Amy when all was quiet again. "I'll bet that one was strong enough to cause a bit of damage in the town. That reminds me. I'd better go look at the shop, make sure it's alright." She stood up and went to pick up her coat.

"Don't you think you should, um research or something," asked Fred. "Don't Willow and Tara have a lot of magic books around here?"

"Oh yeah," said Amy. "Like I'm gonna go through their things. I don't think so. Anyway I've got a lot of books at the shop. I'll have a look through them."

"See if there's anything about the Key," said Fred. "And about the Stargates. I'll see what books are lying around here. I'm sure Willow won't mind if I look through them."

"Oh I'm sure she won't mind YOU looking Fred," muttered Amy quietly to herself. "Oh no."

"Oh and we haven't heard back from Gunn about what Wolfram and Hart are up to," said Fred standing up. "I'll give him a ring."

"No need," said Jenny coming into the room just before Amy left. She had just orbed into the house and heard the last part of the conversation. "I've spoken to Gunn and he's on his way back here. I can tell you exactly what Wolfram and Hart are up to and what's caused the break in communications with the other world."

"Do you know how to get the Stargates back working, or the magic portals?" asked Fred.

"Maybe, I do know it isn't anything to do with the Key," said Jenny. "Hopefully once things have been straightened out, everything will be back to normal. Anyway things will soon start happening around here and we all need to get ready. That earthquake might be just the first of many and some of them are going to be a lot bigger."

"Apocalyptic?" asked Lorne.

"If you say so," said Jenny.

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Things are deteriorating. There's no doubt about that thought Wesley. For one thing the light level had begun to drop. The surrounding gloom was now like a severely overcast day. I hope it's part of a continuing day-night cycle he thought rather than another symptom of this world simply falling apart. Things are bad enough without having to stay in the dark all the time.

Another thing that had changed was the continuing development of currents within the mass of debris floating around them. Their little piece of reality was now part of a stream of assorted bits and pieces of the smashed up world which was flowing on its way to some unknown or non-existent destination.

Other debris streams flowed by alongside them as well as above and below them and in approximate up and down directions. There was some sort of organisation developing within the floating matter since the various streams no longer seemed to collide with one another all the time or exchange particles so much and there were fewer and fewer pieces just floating along on their own.

"Gravity," said Eve abruptly. "It's like gravity."

"What do you mean gravity?" asked Wesley.

"It's like the early solar system," said Eve. "There's a theory that apart from the sun it originally consisted of a lot of small pieces of rock, dust and so on from some old broken up star. As time went on this all settled out into orbits and coalesced into larger pieces through the attraction of gravity. Eventually the pieces were as big as planets, but with a lot left over for meteorites, asteroids, comets and so on."

"Yes, but that took millions of years," said Wesley. "If that's what's beginning here we're not going to be around long enough to see it. Anyway I don't see that things are like that. It's not as if things are colliding with each other all over the place and gathering into bigger and bigger lumps. There's some other reason for what's happening."

"OK, how about this then," said Eve. "Maybe we're in a giant bath and we're now on our way down the plug hole. And when we go down the drain we'll really be in the..."

"You're not helping you know," said Wesley.

"And you are?" replied Eve. "What's your latest great idea to get us out of here?"

"Isn't there anything in your Wolfram and Hart background that would help us to decide where we are and how to get out of here?" asked Wesley. "You must have learnt something in your time with them?"

"Sorry, I missed the briefing on celestial plugholes," said Eve. "I must have been sick that day."

"Look out!" called Wesley because now, once again, things had begun to change.

Ahead of them, in their stream of debris, collisions had started to happen as another stream came down on them from above. Rocks hammered into each other, a bush and a piece of furniture became entangled and spun away and soon it would be their turn.

"We can't survive that," said Eve. "If we get hit by that stuff it'll kill us."

Wesley agreed, but there was no time for discussion. He jumped to his feet and grabbed Eve's hand, pulling her up as well. "Jump!" he shouted and leapt into the unknown. The platform they left behind was almost immediately bombarded by pieces of stone, earth and other debris. They had narrowly escaped being killed.

Now they were falling into space. Hand in hand they fell. There seems to be some sort of gravity pulling us down thought Wesley even if it doesn't affect the rest of the floating debris. Or maybe we're falling because we expect to fall he thought. Maybe we have more influence over this world than we think.

The further they fell the more they seemed to be just moving in their own random direction, like all the other bits and pieces and the various streams of matter. As they had jumped they had looked down towards what would have been the ground. Now, with a minor mental adjustment it seemed that they were simply travelling forward, feet first, on their own path through the debris.

They passed close to a couple of clouds of debris as they fell, or perhaps as they streamed by, but otherwise they passed through empty space. But avoiding hitting anything seemed to be a matter of luck and their luck might soon run out. Up ahead, or down below if you prefer they could see that they were advancing towards a really large mass of rubble. Unless they controlled their descent, or managed to change direction somehow they would soon have a fatal collision.

Eve could see what was coming as clearly as Wesley. "What do we..." began Eve but she stopped talking because suddenly 'she' was there.

'She' was Tara. Tara had appeared by orb in front of them and immediately grabbed hold of them both. Before they could say anything in greeting or ask any questions Tara orbed again, and this time she took them with her.


	48. Allies and Enemies

**Chapter Forty Eight: Allies and Enemies**

"We can't even jump to another star system?" asked Jack.

"No, I'm afraid not. As far as I can see there's no reason why the jump engines don't work," said Sam. "But they just don't."

SG-1 were exploring ways to save their spaceship from crashing. Up until now they had not tried to jump away from the planet to another star system. Now that they had tried it they found themselves unable to do so. When they had travelled away from the planet before, they had deliberately not used the jump technology because they wanted to remain visible to Apophis and lure him away. Now that they were getting closer to Kallistien they needed to do something drastic or the ship and anything it crashed into would be destroyed.

"That is the same as you have reported for the Stargate," said Teal'c. "There seems to be nothing wrong with the equipment, but it just does not work."

"So you're saying this mysterious force, whatever it is, is connected to why the Stargates have gone down," said Jack. "It's sort of dampening things down generally."

"It's the simplest solution," said Sam. "It's much more likely we're dealing with one mystery rather than two or more."

"And you say this force is coming from the capital city. Is that why it cut out for a while? Was that when the city was on the other side of the planet facing away from us?" asked Jack. "Because that would make sense."

"None of this makes sense," said Sam shaking her head in frustration. "Some of the time the city has been facing towards us the force has been turned off and some of the time it's been facing away from us the force has been on. It doesn't seem to make any difference. But it's on most of the time now."

"If it goes off again perhaps that would be a good time to try a jump, or to try to use the Gate again," suggested Teal'c. "Maybe the equipment will work then."

"Good idea," said Jack. "Sergeant, tell Colonel Marker. Tell him we'll give him the nod if this force goes down again so he can try a dial up. Sam..."

"I'm nearly sure the force was off the last time we tried to get the Gate to work," said Sam. "I'll be ready to try a jump the next time it goes down sir. But we shouldn't try to dial up and make a jump at the same time," said Sam. "Sergeant, I'll tell you when to contact Colonel Marker."

"So back to this mysterious force of ours. You're saying this thing is pulling at us even when it's on the other side of the planet?" asked Jack, "when it should be pulling in the opposite direction."

"That's exactly what I'm saying yes, although my latest measurements say the power source is way beneath the surface of the planet," said Sam. "Whichever way the city is facing there's a fair slice of the planet between us and whatever it is anyway."

"Is there any way we can resist being pulled down?" asked Jack. "Can't we realign the dilithium crystals or something?"

Sam sighed. "Um, no. I'm afraid we don't have the time to come up with a brand new scientific invention to save us. This thing is stronger than our regular engines and that's that. You might just as well try to invent a new engine half way through a car race. It doesn't work like that. At least the regular engines still work."

"Well magic's not an option this time," said Jack. "The witches we still have on board say they're all magicked out, whatever that means."

"If Phoebe and Willow couldn't do anything from up here the others wouldn't have a hope," said Sam. "None of them have the same sort of power and they're already busy keeping the other spells going."

"But there may be something we can do," said Teal'c. "Can we not use the engines to control our descent to the extent that we do not crash into the city itself? Could we perhaps achieve a safe landing somewhere nearby or even on the opposite side of the planet when the city is turned away from us?"

"Without going into detail the answer is no, our engines are simply not powerful enough," said Sam. "We're using them to resist being pulled down but we're losing ground bit by bit. Eventually we'll come to a tipping point and lose control. If we try to go into land it'll just mean we crash more quickly."

"So you're saying it's self-destruct or crash, no other option," said Jack.

"That's what I'm saying yes," said Sam. "Unless that force is turned down or turned off again. All we can do is destroy the ship before it hits the atmosphere and leave the fragments to burn up before they hit the ground. We can use the transporters to bail out," said Sam.

"I would prefer that we use the shuttles and save them for the fight against the Goa'uld," said Teal'c. "Unless the shuttles too are subject to this force."

"Good point," said Jack. "That's something we should out check straight away."

"I will see to it," said Teal'c who stood up and walked out of the room.

"And I'll do some calculations to see how much time we've got before we have to blow the ship up," said Sam. "But it'll be very approximate if the force switches off and on again."

"The Goa'uld fleet has started back towards us," said Sergeant Paisley from his place in one of the control seats. Sam went to look over his shoulder at the instrument read outs on the screens in front of him.

"Judging by how long it took us, Apophis will be back here in about twenty four hours," said Sam. "But since we still have our magical cloak he won't know we're here."

"Don't bank on it. Last I checked he still had witches on board his ships as well. He might just figure it out," said Jack. "See if you can pick up any chat between the Goa'uld ships, sergeant. See if you can find out what happened to the ships he left behind. They might be cloaked as well and we don't want to be taken by surprise."

"Yes sir," acknowledged the sergeant. "But I've got an idea about that already sir. I'm picking up Goa'uld transmissions from the largest of the moons. Either Apophis has got a base there or his other ships landed there, or both."

"Good work sergeant. Is that a problem for us Carter?" asked Jack. "Could they detect us from there even though we're cloaked?"

"I don't know sir," replied Sam. "We're still invisible to normal observation but they might have been able to detect it when we transported people down to the planet. That might have produced an energy signature from what looked like an empty area of space. Without an understanding of the magic being used I'm pretty much in the dark. But I'm sure the Goa'uld know about cloaking devices, even if only in theory."

"OK, let's watch out for any energy signatures from their ships, just in case they're out there somewhere," said Jack. "And make sure nobody uses the transporter again without my permission. And keep watching that moon. Hell, watch all the moons. Meanwhile I'll join Teal'c and see if we can figure a way to test out the shuttles without revealing our position."

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The attack started around midnight with demons breaking into the building from all sides. But it was something of an anti-climax for the demons because once inside they found nobody to attack. They had been sent after the Key by their master the demon lord who was convinced that it was inside the building. But as the demons rampaged from room to room, smashing everything in sight they found no sign of the Key or anybody protecting it.

The demon lord himself was perched on a tall building on the opposite side of the street, watching his demons at work. He was large, about ten feet tall and completely black in colour. Completely black until he opened his jaws to display his long white fangs and blood red mouth.

The demon had settled down and folded his wings to await the outcome. If necessary he would take a hand himself but that wasn't the way he usually liked to operate. His power was mainly used to draw other demons to him. Demons who then served him and carried out whatever tasks he set them. Their present task was to find the Key and bring it to him so that he could feast on its power. Once he added the power of the Key to the power he already possessed he would be invincible.

But he wasn't invincible yet. He was frustrated, not to say furious. His demons continued their rampage but they had still not found what they were looking for. But it was there. The demon knew the Key was still inside the building. He could feel it. How could it be hiding from his demons? Obviously some sort of magic trick was being pulled. That's the trouble with this world the demon thought. There's too much magic around, and most of it's white magic.

Alarms began to sound from the other side of town. Very soon the local authorities would arrive and take a hand. The demon was not afraid of them but he wanted to get hold of the Key before everything became confused and his prey had a chance to escape. And if one of the witches that infested this planet did manage to get hold of the Key before he did, and knew how to use it, then the demon would be in trouble.

The demon decided that it could wait no longer. It had to get involved in the search personally. Its ability to feel the presence of the Key would enable it to go straight to it and whoever had possession of it, even if it was hidden by some sort of magic. The demon therefore launched itself into the air in order to glide across the street onto the roof of the building where the Key was located. If necessary it would demolish the building brick by brick. But the glide ended far short of the other side of the street.

The dragon had been watching silently from the darkness above. She had been told of the demon by one of the witches working with the dragons. The witch had received a radio message from the Witch HQ. She had invoked the alliance with the dragons to ask for dragon help in dealing with the demon. The dragons were only too pleased to help. They had no wish for their world to become a playground for demons. They liked it just the way it was.

As soon as the demon launched itself into the air the dragon dropped into a fast silent dive of her own, claws outstretched. She homed in on the demon and dropped onto its back when it was only half way towards the other building. Her talons ripped into the creature causing it to cry out in pain and rage. The demon twisted in the dragon's grasp trying to escape. For anybody watching from below the two monsters swiftly became a twisting intertwined fury of movement as each tried to destroy the other.

As the battle in the sky between demon and dragon developed, Angel and the others at last took a hand against the demons within the building. Drusilla had done a concealment spell to hide the group of four from the searching demons. But it was a simple spell and would not last for long. The plan was to use the spell as a way of taking the demons by surprise and this is what now happened.

By now the various demons were scattered all around the house. They had just about given up looking for the Key and were intent on looking for victims and loot and causing as much damage as possible. They were therefore not prepared when the two vampires together with Connor and Dawn, a potential slayer, all well armed, came out of hiding intent on slaughtering demons.

The group had hidden on the top floor of the house. Now they worked their way down from floor to floor, killing the demons and clearing out the house one step at a time. They moved fast and kept together so that the demons would not have the chance to attack them one at a time.

Meanwhile the aerial combat continued. The dragon still held the demon in her claws and flew ever higher. The demon twisted and turned to try to escape and was now causing damage to the dragon, despite the thickly armoured dragon scales. Finally the demon succeeded in pulling free from the dragon which pulled away with a mighty scream.

But now the demon began to fall. Its wings had been badly damaged by the dragon's first impact and the way she had used her claws. They were no longer able to keep the demon in the air. But the demon knew the fall would not be fatal. It was easily tough enough to survive. The demon calculated that it would land not far from the house containing the Key. Once it had the Key in its possession it could quickly repair its body and be able to deal with the dragon and anything else that opposed it.

But once again the demon was taken by surprise. This time not by a dragon but by a witch and a slayer. Phoebe and Buffy now joined in the battle against the demon.

Phoebe had used her flying power to take herself, Buffy and Xander, south to join Angel, Dawn and the others. She had flown in from the north following the railway line. The three humans knew they had arrived at the right place when they saw the aerial combat between the demon and the dragon in the sky over the town. Night had now fallen but as so often a great deal of light was provided by the Kallistian moons. Phoebe had swooped down and landed on the ground underneath the battling monsters. It was from this position that the three of them saw the dragon drop the demon.

"Take me up again quick," said Buffy. "Let's drive into it before it hits the ground. It won't be expecting that."

"What do you want me to do?" asked Xander but he found that he was talking to himself. Phoebe had realised that she had to act instantly or not at all and the two women were now airborne again.

Phoebe held Buffy by the waist and from behind with the slayer above her. Buffy held her sword firmly in both hands pointing up above her head. As the demon came down the slayer's sword came up. At a devastating closing speed the sword drove right inside the demon.

As she felt the impact Buffy let go of her sword as it disappeared inside the demon. As she felt the impact Phoebe steered away to try to make sure that she and Buffy were not hammered into the ground underneath the falling demon.

Xander watched the impact from below and rushed away from the impact point to avoid being hit by the falling demon himself. The demon hit the ground with a great thud which cracked the paving slabs all around it.

From his position across the road Xander looked up and was relieved to see Phoebe and Buffy still airborne. And then, Xander being Xander, he drew his own sword and ran at the fallen demon in case it was still alive. Xander knew that if the demon still lived it was better to attack it straight away before it had any chance to recover.

But this time Xander did not need to exhibit his usual bravery. The demon was well and truly dead. It might have died anyway but Buffy and Xander had made sure that the witches had added their own power to enchant their swords before setting off south. The dead demon lord had been powerful, very powerful, but it had not been able to resist the combined power of dragon, witch, slayer and gravity.

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"What do you think it is?" asked Cordelia. "What sort of power could possibly pull down spaceships from so far away?"

"There's only one thing I can think of," said Willow. "The same sort of thing that was set to pull down that giant meteor on top of us a few months ago back on Earth."

"A Hellmouth?" asked Kennedy. "You think there's another Hellmouth around here?"

Buffy, Willow, Xander and Phoebe had transported down to the planet to join the others who were already at the Witch HQ. While Phoebe had then used her flying ability to take Buffy and Xander off south, Willow had led most of the others off to investigate the source of the mysterious power that was pulling at the spaceships.

Giles had remained at the Witch HQ to continue his research to see if the witches' library had any useful information about the Key and how it worked and how it might be affecting the Stargates.

"Isn't that what Giles said about all those demons around town?" asked Gwen. "That somebody's trying to open up a Hellmouth? Do you think that's where all those demons came from?"

"Where you get magic you always get a Hellmouth, sooner or later," said Anya. "Why should this place be any different? There's certainly a lot of magic around this world and I bet it's not all white magic."

"What do you mean you always get a Hellmouth?" asked Willow. "Are you saying Hellmouths are some sort of natural feature like a mountain or an island? What exactly causes one to develop?"

"If you want some sort of grand theory to explain how Hellmouths come about you're looking at the wrong person," said Anya. "All I know is that Hellmouths come and go. They always seem to come about where there's a lot of magic being done, dark magic. It's as if the dark magic attracts some sort of connection to the demon realms."

"And what causes them to shut down again?" asked Cordelia. "Or is there some sort of natural process to that as well?"

"You already know the answer to that," said Anya. "Self sacrificing heroes like you guys shut down Hellmouths."

"You were there too." said Willow. "You were as much a hero as anybody else when we shut down the Sunnydale Hellmouth."

"Yeah, well before we expand on our mutual admiration society let's go inside and have a look around," said Kennedy. "See if we can find out who's been doing all that dark magic and what exactly is going on. Even if it is a Hellmouth there must be something more going on otherwise Sunnydale would have been swimming in meteors and spaceships."

"Yeah, if it is a Hellmouth then somebody's using it in some way," said Willow.

"Bet it's Wolfram and Hart," said Cordelia.

SG-1 had pinpointed the location of the origin of the mysterious force. On following the directions provided the group had found themselves outside the hotel. The very hotel in which most of them had previously stayed. The force was centred under the hotel so they would have to go into the basement to find out what was going on.

As Willow led the way into the hotel her thoughts were once again on Tara. Is that what Tara is doing thought Willow. Dealing with a Hellmouth? That might be just the sort of emergency a Whitelighter would have to deal with. Maybe she's inside the hotel, or inside the Hellmouth. Willow quickened her pace.


	49. From Beneath You

**Chapter Forty Nine: From Beneath You**

Everything shook. The ceiling, the floor and the walls all developed ominous cracks but the building didn't actually collapse on top of them. The arrival of the Goa'uld missiles should have obliterated the house and everything for miles around but another force intervened: The Power of Three.

Before carrying out the spell to divert the power of the Key and use it to expel the Goa'uld the three sisters had carried out a protection spell. It seemed likely from the explosions that had taken place that the Goa'uld were already attacking the mansion. The sisters had therefore carried out a spell to protect the building from attack and to give them the time to divert the power of the Key.

The protection spell had not been intended to provide protection against something as massive as the Goa'uld missile strike but it did the job, just. The missiles still exploded, that couldn't be prevented, but most of the force of the explosions was directed back up into the atmosphere. Damage to the building was superficial and there were no casualties.

But the force of the explosions did have one unwelcome affect. The severe shaking of the building and everything in it speeded up the next part of a process that was already underway, the opening of a Hellmouth. The shape that had appeared in the middle of the floor of the basement now simply fell away leaving a black void. And from out of the void things began to emerge.

The first thing to come out was a dark force, a sort of black cloud or miasma. This was visible to everybody as it spread out into the room causing the temperature to drop suddenly. Everybody was not only able to see this cloud but they could feel it as well. It felt evil and threatening. It had to be dealt with straight away.

The first to react was Glory. "Back!" she commanded and light flashed out from her right hand both into the cloud and down into the void. "Back!" she repeated stepping forward to the edge of the drop.

The black cloud retreated to coalesce into a small mass above the seemingly bottomless pit that had opened in the floor. But it did not go back down into the hole. And now it was followed out of the Hellmouth by a group of long green and very active tentacles.

"I need a weapon, something sharp," said Faith looking around the room. She could see nothing suitable.

"Take this," offered Paige and Faith found the Whitelighter-witch placing a flaming sword into her hand.

"Where did that come from? I didn't see you carrying it," said Faith.

"Whitelighter trick," said Paige. "Don't ask questions, just use it."

Faith didn't need to be told twice and now she leapt forward and swung the sword at the tentacles. Soon she was chopping off some of the flailing tentacles and dodging the attention of the others which tried to grab hold of her. Daniel grabbed a chair and smashed it up against the wall. He selected one of the chair legs to use as a club and moved forward to support Faith.

"We've got to close this up and stop anything else coming through," said Prue to her sisters. "We'd better do another Power of Three spell."

"That won't be enough," said Glory who did not take her gaze and her concentration away from the black cloud. "There's only one way to properly shut down a Hellmouth."

At that moment a large figure crashed up through the hole, widening it in the process. Everybody staggered back away from it and found themselves facing a large black, winged demon. As it stood, its feet straddling the hole, it put back its head and roared in triumph.

But if the demon thought it had triumphed in some way it was premature. By forcing its way up through the Hellmouth the demon had displaced the tentacle monster. Either that or the tentacle creature had retired to lick its wounds after the damage done by Faith and Daniel. This left the well armed slayer free to take on the newcomer. Faith now swung her blade at the demon.

The demon was well protected against normal human weapons but a flaming sword produced by a Whitelighter was not a normal human weapon. It was specifically intended to deal with the forces of darkness. The demon casually tried to bat the sword away with his well armoured left arm only to find his arm almost severed by the force of the slayer's blow and the power contained within the sword.

Faith pulled the sword clear for another blow, at the same time delivering a strong low kick to keep the injured demon at bay. Daniel did not get close to the demon but threw his wooden club at the demons head and was gratified to see it strike home. This particular demon had had enough, at least for now. With a final scream it jumped back into the hole before Daniel and the slayer could do any more damage to it. The black cloud flowed downwards after it.

All at once everything was quiet. Nothing more came out of the Hellmouth and there were no more explosions from outside. The six people in the room looked at one another and for a moment nobody spoke.

"Is that it?" asked Daniel finally. "Have we defeated whatever it was trying to come up out of there?"

"Uh, probably not," said Faith. "If that's a Hellmouth there's a lot more where those things came from. A whole world of things probably. It's kinda like the Mexican border. You never run out of characters wanting to come across. We've got to shut it down permanently or much worse things will soon be coming out."

"What did you mean when you said our magic wasn't enough to shut the Hellmouth?" asked Paige, looking at Glory.

"And what happened to Lissie?" asked Prue. "Where did she go and where's the Key?"

"Who knows," said Glory. "Maybe you drained it and it needs to be charged up again. Perhaps it's now in limbo."

"Limbo?" asked Daniel. "Is that an actual place?"

"And what about Lissie?" asked Prue.

Glory shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she's in limbo with it. It was all I could do to let go of it. She seemed to be welded to it."

"Uh guys," said Faith. "Sort that out later. For now could you get on with shutting down the Hellmouth?" As she spoke Faith moved forward towards the group of scarlet and green imps that were now coming out of the hole. This time Piper leant a hand and began to explode the small demons one by one.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

General Hammond had never felt so helpless. Here he was waiting at the SGC for something to happen but with no way to make it happen. He had the resources and skills of a well tuned organisation at his command and the backing of the government of the most powerful country on the planet but he was unable to affect events which might be vital to the future of that planet.

As usual the General was sat at his desk. He did not spend much time in the main control room at the moment. Staring at the inert Stargate was simply a waste of time and just added to his frustration. The worrying thing was that the Gate network might remain down permanently. For him and the others in the SGC on Earth there would be continuing careers, continuing life and family. But as far as those people who were currently marooned on other worlds were concerned he might never know what happened to them. He would have a lot of letters to write to grieving relatives.

How long would the government be willing to allow the SGC to remain sat in front of a non-operating Gate? There was a lot of money invested in the SGC and up to now some real benefits had come out of the programme. But the General didn't think it would be much longer before some sort of investigation was launched to find out why the Stargate had 'broken down.'

Senator Kinsey would certainly find some way to blame what had happened on the alleged incompetence of the SGC. If the investigation found out about witches, vampires and all that there would be hell to pay. The General grimaced briefly to himself at his inadvertent pun.

Perhaps even more worrying was the renewed isolation of the planet. The next time the Goa'uld made a move against Earth the SGC might know nothing about it before it was too late. One day soon they could be faced with a Goa'uld fleet on their doorstep threatening to take over the world, without any realistic chance of fighting them off or calling on their allies for help.

As the General again started to go over in his mind all of the bad things that might happen, the telephone on his desk rang. He picked it up to find that Captain O'Leary at the Control Center was on the line.

"You'd better come up here sir," said the Captain. "We've just heard from NASA. They've picked up transmissions from some spaceships out of Kallistien. They're on the way here. They were Goa'uld ships but now they're crewed by our people."

"You're sure they are what they say they are?" asked Hammond.

"As much as we can be," replied O'Leary. "They're using the right call signs."

"I'll be right up," said Hammond.

A few minutes later the General arrived in the Control Center to talk to the Captain.

"Do we know if SG-1 are on board any of those ships?" asked the General.

"I asked about that sir," said the Captain. "But no, they don't seem to be on board any of the ships. The report is that Colonel O'Neill, SG-1 and some of the others stayed behind aboard the Goa'uld flagship they had captured. He ordered the smaller ships to come to Earth."

"And just why would he have done that?" asked the General.

"Because another Goa'uld fleet with Apophis aboard had just turned up and the Colonel didn't think the smaller ships would be any help in the fight," replied the Captain.

"So SG-1, plus whatever help they could get from the locals and the other people there, might have already fought a battle against Apophis," said the General. "Let's hope it came out OK."

"At least we now have a way of getting to Kallistien and getting our people back," said the Captain. "Shall I order the ships to go back and conduct an evacuation sir?"

"No," said the General. "O'Neill's the man on the spot. He ordered those ships away. If he won that battle he won't need us. If he didn't we'd just be throwing away those ships. Unless he found a way to destroy Apophis's fleet it wouldn't be very healthy for any ships sent back there at the moment."

"But he probably gave that order before he knew about the Gates going down," said the Captain. "How else are we going to get our people back?"

"Let's give them a little more time," said the General. "SG-1 have got a pretty good track record of getting out of really bad scrapes. I'm betting they'll come through this time as well. Anyway I've got another urgent job for those ships."

"Sir?" asked the Captain.

"I want those ships to be loaded up with supplies and sent out to all of our offworld bases," said the General. "They can evacuate any bases that are threatened or that won't be able to survive for long cut off from us. By the time that's taken care of we might know more about what's happening on Kallistien."

"Those ship will also be able to find out if the whole Gate network is down or if it's just the Gates on Earth," said the Captain. "I'll get things moving."

The General returned to his office to make some calls to ensure that his orders were put into effect without any interference from other commands and agencies. As he arrived in the office he realised that his first call had to be to the President to update him on the latest developments. Even so it was probable that the White House, Kinsey and who knew who else, might already have the news from NASA.

The General shut the door to his office for privacy and turned back to his desk. He jumped at the unexpected proximity of a person in the room with him next to his desk. A person who had not been there a moment before. It was Leo who had quietly orbed in.

"I've got some news about why the Gates aren't working," said Leo.

"And some way to get them working again?" asked the General.

"Maybe," said Leo. "But there's a big risk involved."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Xander watched as Phoebe, still holding onto Buffy, came into land next to the fallen demon. "It's dead," he said. "As a Dodo."

"Can't be too sure with something like that," said Buffy. "Let me borrow your sword."

Xander gave Buffy his sword. The slayer went round to the head of the creature and with one blow cut through its neck and separated the head from the body. She jumped back quickly to avoid the dark green blood that streamed out onto the ground.

"Well that should mean it's well and truly dead all right," said Buffy. She picked up the head by one of its horns and threw it a long way down the street.

Buffy had insisted that Phoebe fly at top speed on their way south to join up with Angel, Dawn and the others. The flight through the night had been hair-raising for the two Scoobies and not something that either of them wanted to repeat any time soon, except in a dire emergency.

It's not like I ever wanted to fly out the window with Peter Pan thought Xander as he watched Buffy. I'm gonna use the train to get back, one of those trains with a restaurant car and a bed. I hope they have that sort around here.

"OK," said Buffy having finished with the demon. "Now where's Dawn?"

No sooner was the question asked than it was answered. It was Xander who spotted Dawn and Connor coming out of the house where they had taken part in the slaying of the lesser demons.

The dragon had now landed in the street along the road. This was the reason that none of the locals had yet arrived on the scene. A small group of uniformed people was now gathered down the other end of the street but every time a civilian had arrived to see what was happening, one look at the dragon and they had quickly disappeared again.

Phoebe looked at the dragon and wondered if it was one of those she had met before. Then she wondered if the dragon was wounded and if it needed any help. She went over to talk to it.

Xander stood and stared at the giant beast but he didn't follow Phoebe in walking up to it. At least it seems to be friendlier than the last lot of dragons he thought, taking his mind back to the big fight inside the Sunnydale Hellmouth. His last memory of that fight was of being flattened by a dragon. I suppose dragons are like everything else he thought. Some are good and some are bad and the rest do the best they can.

Meanwhile Buffy rushed over to her sister. "You're sure you're OK," she asked looking her up and down. "You're not um..."

"I'm fine," said Dawn. "And no, I'm not going to turn into a mystic Key any time soon."

After a few minutes together they were joined by Xander, Angel, Connor and Drusilla. They briefly brought each other up to date on what had happened to them and agreed that they had to decide where to go and what to do next.

"We've got to go back to the city," said Phoebe who had joined them for the last part of their conversation.

"But we just left there," said Connor rolling his eyes up. "First we leave, then we go back. Doesn't anybody know what they're doing?"

"The Goa'uld have been pushed back out of the city, at least for now," said Buffy. "With the dragon's help we've dealt with the big demon and you've killed all the lesser demons. It should be safe enough to go back there now."

"We didn't just leave the city because of the demons and the Goa'uld," said Angel. "We also left because the witch magic there was a danger to Dawn."

"Dawn should be safe enough so long as she doesn't go back to the Witch HQ," said Phoebe. "I've got to go back there to find out what's happened to my sisters but you guys don't have to. I think you should find somewhere near to the Stargate. When that starts working again that'll be the way home."

"She's right," said Buffy. "And anyway if anybody can get the Gates working again or open up a magic portal it'll be Willow and she's in the city. I think it's about time we all got together in one place anyway. I've a feeling it's gonna take all of us together to straighten things out."

"Anybody know the time of the next train?" asked Connor.

"You don't need to wait for a train," said Phoebe. "I've had a word with the dragon over there and the dragons are willing to carry everybody back to the city."

There was a moment's silence while everybody digested the prospect of a dragon-back ride. The silence was broken by Xander.

"Uh Buffy," he said. "Isn't the city where the spaceship is gonna crash if nothing is done to stop it?"

"Yes it is, but it's also where Willow and the others are checking out what it is that's affecting the spaceships," said Buffy. "She might need us, but I don't want Dawn to..."

"I'm going where you're going," interrupted Dawn.

"You've been saying that since you were three years old," said Buffy. "Erm that's to say..."

"Well I'm going back to the city anyway," said Phoebe. "Even if nobody else does. That's where my sisters will be returning to, eventually."

"You need to have one of your visions my dear," said Drusilla to Phoebe. She had so far simply listened to the others talking. "I can help you with that."

"You mean if we work together like I did with Cordy?" asked Phoebe.

"Let's find somewhere to sit down," replied Drusilla.

Drusilla led Phoebe into the garden of the house where the demon fighting had taken place and sat down with her on a garden seat. The others followed and watched. Drusilla now placed her right hand onto Phoebe's forehead and began humming to herself. After a few moments Phoebe reacted and began to stare vacantly into space. Clearly she was now seeing a vision.

After a few moments Phoebe came to herself and looked at Drusilla. "Did you see it too?" she asked.

"Oh yes," said Drusilla. "But you'll be better at explaining it to everybody."

Phoebe looked up at the others standing nearby waiting. "We've definitely all got to return to the city," she said. "If we ever want to get home that is."

"Oh," said Dawn suddenly, interrupting any further explanation by Phoebe. Dawn put her right hand to her head. "I feel very strange."

"Sit down," said Buffy taking hold of her sister's left arm. But at that moment Dawn fainted. Buffy caught her and made to lie her down on the ground when in the space of two seconds Dawn simply faded away, leaving Buffy holding onto nothing at all.


	50. In and Out of Hell

**Chapter Fifty: In and out of Hell**

Willow led the way into the hotel but Kennedy quickly hurried past her, ready to draw the sword that she wore at her hip or one of the stakes that she carried. As a slayer she felt it was her job to be first to confront whatever demons or other terrors might be coming out of a Hellmouth. But at first sight there was nothing to confront, just a hotel carrying out business as usual.

"It doesn't look as if anything's wrong," said Gwen. "Are we in the right place?"

"Probably," said Cordelia. "We had a school remember, our High School, right on top of the Hellmouth back in Sunnydale and most of the time you wouldn't have known there was a Hellmouth underneath."

"Apart from all the demons and vampires that kept turning up," said Anya.

"As well as the ghosts and all the sudden deaths," added Willow.

"And the most awful worm of a school principal," said Cordelia.

"We need the basement right?" asked Kennedy. "Anybody know how to get down there?"

"There's the main staircase over there," said Gwen pointing off to the other side of the foyer. "I think there's a staircase going down round the back. That should take us to the basement."

Gwen broke off from what she was saying because quite suddenly everybody in sight, about two dozen people in all, turned at the same time and faced the group of women. They all had blank looks on their faces and some of them were armed. Some of them had drawn knives from out of their clothing while the staff behind the reception desk brought out larger weapons from concealment.

"We've seen sort of thing before. Remember that night in the school?" said Willow as the five women gathered into a protective circle. "The Hellmouth's affecting them, but they're still ordinary people. Try not to kill anybody."

"That's easy for you to say," said Anya as the people gathered in groups surrounding them. "Why don't you tell them that?"

More and more people entered the foyer. Like the others they were armed with an assortment of weapons including knives and swords. The bewitched people were obviously preparing to rush the group all at once and try to kill them. I'd better freeze them thought Willow, that won't hurt anybody. But I wanted to save as much magic power as possible for when I reach the Hellmouth. But before Willow could act Cordelia beat her to the punch. Once again she called forth her witch power and sent it out in all directions.

"Looks like it's glowing time again," said Gwen who realised she wouldn't need to use her electricity. And indeed it was.

The glow coming from Cordelia spread out into the open space of the hotel foyer, into the nearby rooms and then through the rest of the hotel. As it did so everybody in the surrounding mob disappeared from view in the glare. A few moments later they re-appeared again, now no longer bewitched. Or more accurately now bewitched by Cordelia into returning to their normal selves.

The confused people now wandered around in a daze, absent-mindedly dropping their weapons onto the floor. They clearly had no idea what was going on. Meanwhile Cordelia had dropped to her knees to rest and regain her energy.

"Everybody must leave the hotel, by order of the Witches' Council," said Willow in a loud voice. To start with everybody just stared at her. Willow then spoke a word and all the lights in the area blazed brighter than they ever had before. Everybody watching could now be in no doubt that Willow was a witch. They began to leave the building.

Willow went over to two uniformed security guards who had been standing around as confused as everybody else. "Make sure nobody comes back in. Keep everybody well back. We've got to deal with a magic problem on these premises." The guards, glad to have orders from somebody who seemed to be in authority, began to shepherd people outside.

"OK, now let's get down to the basement," said Kennedy.

"I'll stay with Cordy until she's recovered," said Gwen.

"No, I'm alright," said Cordelia getting back to her feet. "I'm stronger than I used to be. That sort of thing doesn't hit me so hard anymore. We'd all better go together."

But as they crossed the foyer and walked towards the stairs they heard a loud roar behind them. They turned to see a great black column of power stream upwards from beneath the middle of the floor. It swept up through the ceiling and perhaps all the way up to the roof. It seemed to be insubstantial because as far as they could see it did no damage to the building. The floor remained intact and so did the walls and ceiling as the power, whatever it was, passed through them.

"That must be coming from the Hellmouth," said Anya. "Whatever it is it can't be good. Something must have opened the Hellmouth right up."

As abruptly as the column of power appeared it now cut off just as suddenly. All was silent in the foyer. The eruption from below had speeded up the exodus from the hotel. The foyer was now deserted except for the group of five women, but otherwise it looked quite normal.

"And shut it up again," continued Anya. "But I expect something has come through downstairs, something nasty."

"I think we should go and look right now," said Cordelia.

Willow didn't hear what was being said. She was beginning to notice something. She had become aware of a presence, a very familiar presence: "Tara!" she yelled and ran towards the stairs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Faith, Glory, Daniel and the Halliwells had fought off the latest attack from out of the Hellmouth and at last were able to take another breather. The hole in the middle of the room still produced smoke and noxious smells which burped upwards from time to time but for the moment no more demons, tentacles or other horrors emerged to attack them.

Prue looked at the various dismembered demon bodies lying around the room and wrinkled her nose at the awful smell. The bodies remaining were only a part of the demon casualty list. Piper had destroyed many of the attackers without trace but some of the creatures they had fought had been able to resist Piper's power. They had been killed by the magic and muscle power of the others.

"If this is what you guys had to deal with all the time back in Sunnydale it's amazing you were able to keep a lid on it for so long," said Prue.

"It wasn't like this," said Faith. "Not all the time anyway. Most of the time the Hellmouth was there but it was shut. It just attracted all sorts of demons and vampires to the town. They were already on Earth. Most of them didn't come out of the Hellmouth although some of them tried to open it up. That's when we usually had the most fun."

"Sunnydale?" asked Daniel. "Do you mean Sunnydale California?"

"Uh huh, why?" asked Faith.

"Oh we always kept an eye open for Goa'uld activity on Earth," replied Daniel. "We got reports about curious events. Sunnydale came up a few times but it never seemed to have anything to do with the Goa'uld. Anyway it always seemed to settle down again on its own so we never needed to send an investigation team."

"Settled down on its own, huh!" said Faith. "That's so not what happened."

"Yes, I understand that now," said Daniel.

"OK, time's up," said Glory. "We've had a little rest. Now we've got a few decisions to make, hard decisions. And we've got to make them now, before anything else comes up out of there."

"You sound like you've got a plan for dealing with this," said Piper. "A plan we're not going to like."

"Yes, I've got a plan, like it or not." said Glory. "But first I want to know what you guys did to that Hellmouth back on your home world. Did you shut it down? And if so how exactly did you do it?"

"Yes, I'd be interested to hear about that," said Daniel. As he spoke a deep rumbling roar could be heard coming from the hole. He raised his voice. "But not if it takes a long time. I don't think we've got very long."

"It took strong magic," said Prue. "Applied from both sides of the Hellmouth. We had witches on Earth and in the Hellmouth doing closure spells. We then had to defend both sides from anything that tried to break through before the closure was secure enough to be permanent. Kind of like waiting for the mortar to set."

"We had to stop demons on Earth opening things up from this side and at the same time stop anything on the other side from breaking out," said Paige. "After a couple of days the closure was permanent."

"So you're saying some magic user has to go into the Hellmouth and close it up behind them," said Glory. "Yes, I thought it had to be something like that."

"So how does... how did the magic users inside the Hellmouth get out again?" asked Daniel. And who gets the short straw he wondered without saying any more. Are we looking for one of these witches to volunteer for a suicide mission?

But before anybody could answer, the background rumbling from the Hellmouth exploded into a great shower of black power which suddenly poured up out of the hole in front of them. They all staggered back, away from the hole, all that is except Glory.

Glory held out her right hand and began muttering incantations in an attempt to block the flow of power. She didn't know what the power represented exactly but she could feel that it was evil. She knew it would do no good to her home world. It had to be stopped, and stopped soon. Thankfully she still felt highly energised from her encounters with the Key.

Without releasing her concentration or turning her head away from the Hellmouth Glory addressed the other witches. "You know what to do this side. Shut it up and keep it shut."

"Yes, but what are you..." began Prue.

But Glory didn't wait for Prue's question. She ran towards the Hellmouth and jumped into the hole, right into the upward streaming column of black power. She immediately screamed in pain and a horrible expression came on her face as she floated within the black stream.

The others stared forward to help but before they could do anything Glory gathered her concentration again and forced herself downwards against the flow of power. And then she was gone, vanished into the hole. A few moments later the stream of power cut out and stopped flowing up out of the hole.

"What's she doing?" shouted Daniel, whose voice sounded like a shout in the now quiet room.

"She's going to shut up the Hellmouth from the other side," said Prue. "And we've got to do the same thing from this side. Quick, we've got to use the Power of Three."

Prue held out her hands and her sisters grasped them. "OK, We'll use the same spell we used to shut down the Sunnydale Hellmouth. We know that works." With that the three sisters all began to chant the Hellmouth closure spell.

"How do they get Glory back after this is over?" said Daniel to Faith who had no part to play in the spell casting. How does she get back out of the Hellmouth?"

Faith shrugged. "Maybe she doesn't," she replied.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"We've got maybe seven and a half hours sir," said Sam. "But that's only a best guess. That's about the last moment we dare delay the self-destruct. Otherwise the ship will be too deep into the atmosphere and the pieces left over might not burn up on re-entry. If that happens they might kill a lot of people."

"Can we set a clock on it Carter?" asked Jack. "Just so we can make sure we don't leave it too late."

"It's not as simple as that sir," said Sam. "This force fluctuates for no apparent reason. Sometimes it's hardly there and other times it's tearing at us more strongly than ever. It's possible it'll get even stronger as we get closer to the planet. That estimate could be several hours out, either way. I assigned one of our people to keep monitoring our position. We'll get a warning if that estimate changes either way."

"Well at least Teal'c and Marker have managed to find enough pilots among our people to fly those shuttles out of here," said Jack. "It'll give us some air cover down on the planet if we have to carry on fighting the Goa'uld."

"They still report the shuttles aren't being affected by whatever it is that's pulling us down," said Sergeant Paisley. "They should all arrive at a former Goa'uld landing field near the capital within the hour."

"And Apophis's fleet is still on the way back here," said Sam. "But they'll take longer than I thought because they're fighting the force all the way."

"Well that's good news," said Jack. "This thing might not be on our side but at least it's not on his side either. I'll bet Apophis has got no more idea what it is than we do...and that gives me an idea."

"Some more bluffing?" asked Sam who had seen that look on Jack's face before.

"Why not?" said Jack. "What have we got to lose?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It wasn't exactly tea but it was close enough thought Giles after he put the cup down. Over the past few days Giles had become quite fond of it. But at least the Kallistians have proper biscuits he thought as he ate another. The watcher had been provided with regular supplies of both by the Kallistian witches as he continued his studies.

Giles was back in his natural habitat. Alone in a library and conducting research. But he had never before conducted research in a library that was anything like the Kallistian witch library. For one thing it was so easy to read everything. Well it was for somebody who like Giles had the cooperation of the witches.

The difficult or dangerous books in the collection were often protected by security spells. Such spells kept the books closed until the correct words of magic were spoken. Giles had been told what words to use. "Alimaar!" he exclaimed and the latest book to appear on the desk in front of him opened itself at the first page.

Other books had more subtle protections. For example a book might be very readable and give useful but not very important information. But invoke the correct magic spell and the book would be transformed into something quite different, giving completely different information.

The links between books were something that Giles wanted to introduce to the new Watchers' Library that he was in the course of setting up back in England. Whenever Giles found a reference to another book in something that he was reading he just had to speak the link spell and the other book would appear on the table next to him. The saving in time and effort was immense. It was like clicking on an internet link but with the added advantage, in Giles's view, of applying to real books.

Giles reached for his cup once more but then stopped, frozen in place by what he saw on the page in front of him.

"Good lord," he muttered aloud to himself as he read the accompanying text. "It that's true then it means..."

Giles reached forward and took hold of one of the half dozen books piled up around him. He was under strict orders from the witch librarian not to re-file any of the books that he got off the shelves. That was the job of the library staff who did not want their system disrupted by taking any chance of a book being put back in the wrong place. The books therefore tended to build up around Giles until an assistant appeared to clear away the ones he had finished with.

Giles re-read the page that he had half remembered in the other book and then turned back to the first book. He held the book up to the light to better study the illustration in front of him.

"Yes," he muttered. "It must be. I've got to tell Buffy, Buffy and Dawn."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The latest tremor stopped at last and Fred gave a sigh of relief. After waiting for a few moments to be sure it was really over she stood up and walked out of the 'safe' room and into the main front lounge of the Sunnydale Slayer HQ. Everybody had agreed that the main security control room at the center of the building provided the best protection from earthquakes. The others followed her out.

"Much more of this and California will drop off into the ocean," she said. It was intended as a joke but if fell flat. With destruction of the world once more a possibility who knew what might happen if things continued to get worse.

"How long can we afford to wait?" asked Amy. She had followed Fred into the lounge. "We don't even know if Tara got back to Kallistien and told everybody what's really going on. We might be waiting for nothing. And even if Tara made it, the others might not make it back here. All the time we wait, these quakes just get worse. I'll bet people are dying every time one hits."

"Leo will be here soon," said Jenny. "He's talking to the Elders. He's trying to persuade them to give us more time."

"How can your Elders give us more time?" asked Lorne. "I thought we had to go through with all this because it was the only way to save the world? Can they actually stop the tremors?"

"I think if the Elders all pulled together they might be able to keep a lid on things for a little while and give us some more time," said Jenny. "They're a pretty powerful bunch really. But that makes no difference to what we have to do, just how long we can wait before we do it."

"Let me get this right," said Gunn. "You Whitelighters are some sort of angels. So your elders must be some sort of archangels. That must give them some influence with the guy upstairs. Can't they just get him to stop all this?"

"Doesn't work that way I'm afraid," said Jenny. "Free will. That includes the free will to make mistakes and..."

"...and destroy the world," said Gunn. "Well that sucks. Who was it made the world the way it is anyway? Who needs earthquakes? And what has freewill got to do with the quakes? Ain't nobody out there voting for more quakes."

"There's nothing new in being able to destroy the world," said Amy. "People have been able to do that ever since they invented nuclear weapons."

"Let's leave all the religion out of this," said Fred. "It's not going to help us and it's not like we all have the same religion anyway. We've got to do what we have to, to save the world, again. And if we have to go ahead before everybody gets back from Kallistien that's the way it's got to be. If some higher power..."

"...gets off its butt." interrupted Gunn.

"If some higher power lends a hand," continued Fred, "then that's great. But we never just sit around with our fingers crossed do we? We've got to be ready to do what's necessary."

"OK, we'll wait to see what Leo's got to say when he gets back," said Gunn. "It's not as if this is our choice anyway. It's the Whitelighters and the Elders who've made the deal with the dark side. That doesn't sound like free will to me. It sounds like the guys upstairs are making all the decisions for us."

"Good point," said Jenny thoughtfully. "I'll be back as soon as I can." With that she disappeared in an orb.


	51. Coming Back

**Chapter Fifty One: Coming Back**

"That's right," said Jack. "I've got control of your fleet and there's not a thing you can do about it. Either you do what I say or you and all your people can go to hell, or wherever it is you guys go to when you've been naughty."

Jack was once again trying to bluff Apophis. Like the former Goa'uld ship now controlled by SG-1, Apophis's fleet was being pulled back to Kallistien by the mysterious force coming from the planet. Jack had contacted Apophis to try to claim the credit for what was happening. Because the SG-1 ship was cloaked by the magic of the witches on board, Jack hoped Apophis had no idea that his enemies were also unable to break free of this force.

"Release my ships or face the consequences," demanded Apophis, who as usual was not going to do what Jack wanted if he could think of any other option.

He seems to accept that we're the ones making it happen thought Jack. One up to us. "You mean you're going to crash your fleet onto the planet just to spite me," Jack replied. "Because that's exactly what will happen if you don't follow my instructions. And this time you won't have any way out."

"What you have not explained is why you should want to stop my fleet crashing anyway," said Apophis. "We are enemies. If my destruction was as certain as you claim you would simply watch it happen."

"No I wouldn't and you know it," said Jack. "It's never been our practice to allow any unnecessary killing. If you were the only one who was going to be killed I'd get in the beers and sit back and watch. But if your fleet crashes it'll kill a lot of people, many of them innocent people. We don't want that but we'll do it if it's the only way to stop you."

"So what do you want?" asked Apophis. "I would prefer to see my fleet destroyed before I handed it over to you."

"But would you want to be destroyed yourself?" asked Jack. "I'm prepared to give you a way out. If you evacuate your ships and use the self destruct on them I'll let you and your people get away. But only on condition you release all of your prisoners, including those witches you snatched from Earth. You can send them off on your shuttle craft before you destroy your ships and we'll let them land on the planet or pick them up before they crash."

"You know as well as I that the Stargates are not working," said Apophis. "Without these ships and the shuttles, how do you propose I evacuate my people?"

"Unlike you, I know why your Gates aren't working," said Jack. "If you follow my instructions I'll have them working again in a little while. Get your people ready for evacuation. Send off your prisoners in the shuttles and get your ships ready for self destruction."

"When all your prisoners are safely with us I'll arrange for the Gates to come back on line so that you can evacuate your people. But you'll have to be ready to move fast. You'll only have the one chance."

At that point Jack broke the connection, to find that the others in the Control Center, including Sam, were giving him curious looks.

"You know why the Gates aren't working?" queried Sam. "And you'll have them working again? Where did that come from?"

"Hey, I'm winging it right?" said Jack. "No, I don't know any more than anybody else why the Gates aren't working but Apophis doesn't know that. And he won't know until after he's released his prisoners. Let's just hope the Gates don't come back on line again before he does that. That would completely mess up my bluff."

"What if the Gates never come back on line?" asked Sam.

"Then we're no worse off than we are now," said Jack. "But you've got a planet full of witches to work with Major. I'm sure if you work with them you'll come up with something sooner or later."

"If Apophis does send off his shuttle craft he might put Jaffa aboard them," said Teal'c. "He might even conceal himself aboard one of them. We will have to be careful about where we allow them to land. We should not let them come aboard this ship."

"Good point," said Jack. "Talk to the Kallistians. Find somewhere suitable where the shuttles can land and the people aboard can be vetted. We can insist that they land one at a time and threaten to shoot down any which ignore our instructions. If Apophis plays ball that is. I expect he'll wait as long as he can and hope the Gates come back up again anyway so he can take his prisoners with him. We've got to think of some way round that."

"I'll talk to the witches we've still got on board," said Sam. "I'll see if there's any way they can check on how many prisoners Apophis has got and whether they'll be able to tell if he releases them all."

"And I've got to do a bit more thinking," said Jack thoughtfully. "There's something else that Apophis might try."

"And what's that?" asked Sam.

"I don't know," said Jack. "I haven't thought of it yet. But it's somewhere in the back of my mind. It's something that should be obvious."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Willow had never run so fast, even when being chased by demons or vampires. She had certainly never run full speed downstairs two and three steps at a time. But she didn't really notice what she was doing as she sped downwards. She just knew that she was following the thread that would lead her to Tara. She could feel the pull of her presence and at the same time she could feel the presence of the Hellmouth. Whatever that meant it couldn't be good.

Kennedy as a vampire slayer was the only one who could keep up with Willow and even she didn't manage to reach the bottom of the stairs first. At the bottom Kennedy had no problem deciding which way to go. She simply followed Willow who it seemed had no doubts about her destination.

The bottom of the staircase was not the lowest level of the building. It was the level of the kitchens but underneath the kitchens were the cellars. Willow sped through the kitchens past the startled kitchen staff and straight towards the cellar door on the other side of the building.

Willow did not really notice the people in the kitchens but Kennedy did. Thankfully they seemed to be no threat. Either they had not been affected by the Hellmouth or Cordelia's magic had brought them out of it.

"Leave the building," shouted the slayer to a number of people as she went past. They simply stared after her. "Fire!" she yelled. "Fire!" and at last she got a response. People began to stop what they were doing and rush towards the exit.

For some reason the cellar door was locked. Willow didn't wait to find somebody to open the door but just blasted it with her power and rushed through the space where the door had been and down the steps into the cellar.

Not pausing to find a light switch Willow muttered a short incantation and a witch light appeared above her head. It kept pace with her as she descended into the darkness closely followed by Kennedy.

At the bottom of the cellar steps Willow stopped for the first time since she started her headlong rush. Her concern for Tara had not stopped her from being almost out of breath. The bottom of the steps ended at the base of a wall with a wide open area on the other three sides. Or rather it would have been a wide open cavernous area were it not for the rows of storage shelves and wine racks stretching away into the darkness.

The feeling was strong now but Willow was suddenly cautious. She had been reacting emotionally but the run and the pause for breath had given her a few moments to think. If she ran headlong into danger it wouldn't do Tara any good and who knew what might have come out of the Hellmouth? But direction still wasn't a problem. Willow knew exactly the direction she needed to go. She took a couple more deep breaths and set out towards the Hellmouth at a fast walk, Kennedy by her side, sword in hand.

A few moments later they left the area of the wine racks and came to a large empty space. It hadn't been empty for long because there were fallen and broken pieces of wine racks scattered around. Some force had come from somewhere and cleared the area. A force that might still be nearby.

Willow stopped on the edge of the cleared area and Kennedy stopped beside her, ready to react to any threat. There was a bright glow coming from ahead of them but they could not make out any more than that because of the mist drifting in the area in front of them. Apart from the mist the most noticeable thing was the strong somewhat sulphurous smell.

"Tara" called Willow. "Can you hear me? Are you alright sweetie? Can you orb over to me?"

Willow's call did not produce an answer from Tara but Willow found herself reluctant to step into the mist to search blindly for her partner. Apart from anything else there was a Hellmouth in there and she did not want to blindly fall into it. She also didn't want to be caught up inside some evil magical mist. She'd fallen for that one before.

Willow decided she had better try to do something to clear the mist. She raised her right hand but before she could do anything more the mist started to move anyway. It began to flow from right to left and then into a circle as it picked up speed. Soon it consisted of a spinning funnel of mist which condensed and concentrated in one area in front of them, the area which Willow assumed covered the entrance to the Hellmouth.

"Does that mean the Hellmouth is open again?" whispered Kennedy quietly to Willow. "Is that where the wind is coming from?" Willow shrugged without taking her concentration away from what was in front of her. At the same time she heard the others arrive behind her having caught up at last.

Without saying a word Cordelia and Anya stepped forward on either side of Willow and each took hold of one of Willow's hands. The three of them had worked together before. They would be stronger using their magic together to deal with whatever threat faced them.

By now most of the funnel of mist had floated upwards and begun to fade. It left behind a layer sufficient to cover the floor in front of them. As the upper levels of mist gradually diminished it revealed a figure standing some yards away from them. The figure was lit from behind by a yellowish glow coming up out of the ground behind it and for the moment only an outline was visible, a female outline.

Willow stepped forward, bringing Cordelia and Anya with her. Kennedy and Gwen kept in step to either side ready to take part in any fight.

"Tara?" called Willow once again because she could still feel the thread that connected her to Tara leading in that direction, but once again there was no reply.

But as the figure walked towards them it became clear that it wasn't Tara. It was however a familiar figure which now became properly visible as she walked under the witchlight: Eve!

"Well about time," said Eve. "If you guys hadn't turned up soon I would have had to go looking for you. I thought somebody would be here soon what with the stuff that keeps coming out of that Hellmouth."

Where's Tara?" demanded Willow. "What have you done to her? What are Wolfram and Hart up to now? Willow was not just worried anymore she was angry and getting more angry all the time. As she glared at Eve she felt the darkness begin to rise within her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Look, the future can take care of itself," said Daniel. "We've already established that. But you can't just abandon Glory. She did a lot to save this world. When this is over you've got to do something to get her out of there."

"How? The whole point of what she's doing, the whole point of the closure spell the sisters are doing, is to stop things coming out of the Hellmouth," said Faith. "We can't just open it up again. You saw the sort of things that came out. Even if we didn't have to return to the future we couldn't stay here on guard forever. Anyway, sooner or later something would come through that'd get past us. We've got to shut it down for good and this is our chance to do it. It might be our only chance."

While Daniel and Faith were talking, the three sisters were on the other side of the room gathered around the hole in the floor that was the entrance to the Hellmouth. They were busy carrying out their spell to permanently shut it down, the same spell that they had performed on the Sunnydale Hellmouth.

"Is that what happened back in Sunnydale?" asked Daniel who was now somewhat annoyed. "Did you have to abandon somebody inside the Hellmouth? Is that what it takes, some sort of blood sacrifice, a volunteer for certain death?"

"A whole bunch of us went into the Hellmouth back in Sunnydale," said Faith. "Including me, Prue and Piper. We thought we'd never come out again but it didn't work out that way."

"So there is a way out. How?" asked Daniel.

"No idea," said Faith. "And nor has anybody else. Once we'd done our job in there we just appeared back in Sunnydale. Everybody assumed it was something to do with 'Higher Powers'."

"So Glory might appear back here when this is finished?" asked Daniel.

Faith shrugged. "Either she will or she won't. I don't think there's anything we can do about it. You're asking the wrong person, but I'm betting she won't. She might just stay in there and take over the place. If you live in a place like that I guess you either have to beat them or join them, or both."

Daniel had never been told by the others all that they knew about Glory's future but he knew they did know a lot that they hadn't told him. "Are you saying you know she'll survive somehow because you know what happens to her in the future?" he asked.

"Let's just say if you meet her again in the future don't assume she's the same person," said Faith. "Bringing her back in the future might be worse than putting up with the Goa'uld."

Daniel raised his eyebrows at that, but before he could question Faith any further the sisters joined them, having completed their closure of the Hellmouth.

"OK," said Prue looking back at what now looked to be a perfectly ordinary floor, with no sign of a hole. "That's the best we can do. And since we used the Power of Three it's pretty good. If Glory's done the same thing on the other side, the Hellmouth should stay shut, either permanently or for a very long time. But I suppose we should stay on guard here for a couple of days until we're certain something doesn't come along and bust it open again."

"After those two days could you orb inside the Hellmouth and pick up Glory?" asked Daniel, looking at Paige.

"Um no, I'm afraid not," said Paige. "I've never been inside a Hellmouth and I don't know how to get into this one. I was one of the guys who had to stay back on the Earth side of the Sunnydale Hellmouth."

"We know that Glory will have to stay where she is for a couple of days anyway," said Prue. "She's got to stop anything from breaking out or we've just wasted our time."

"And that'll give us some time to decide what to do next about Glory," began Piper. "We also have to decide do we go back to the future or do we first try to find out what happened to Lissie and the Key because..."

Piper broke off from what she was saying because things were starting to happen. Things in the room around them began to move, slowly at first then more quickly. The table was suddenly in a different position. The open door was suddenly closed, and then just as suddenly it was open again. Things appeared in the room and disappeared again.

Nobody could move. It was as if they were watching a movie on fast forward from the inside. Daniel realised what was happening. They were moving forward in time. He tried to explain this to the others but found that not only could he not move, he could not speak either.

And then the building disappeared altogether to be replaced by a deep, black fog surrounding them. Try as he might Daniel could not even turn his head to see if the fog obstructed his view in all directions. Just as he was becoming really frustrated it disappeared altogether and they were back. They were back in the basement library of the Witches' HQ in future, or rather in present day, Kallistien.

Nobody had witnessed their return to the same place from where they had left to journey back into the past. But everything looked the same. It seemed that they had arrived at a time when there was nobody else in the library. As far as they could tell they had returned to the same future that they had left.

"So the automatic return part of the time travel spell finally kicked in," said Paige. "I guess that means we were successful in doing what we set out to do."

"I think that Hellmouth must have stayed shut back in the past," said Prue. "Otherwise the future would have been changed and this place would look very different."

"We went into the past to find out how they got rid of the Goa'uld," said Daniel. "And we found that out but it involved Glory and the Key. We don't have either of them here and now, so what happens next? Have we just wasted our time? Or is there some way we can get hold of the Key here and now?"

Faith and Prue exchanged glances at that but neither of them spoke.

"Shouldn't we make sure first we're in the same future we left?" said Piper. "So far it looks just the same but we might go outside and find everybody's two foot tall, or has a tail or something."

"Is it even possible to return to another future?" asked Paige. "And if we did would we even know it was different? Would we still remember the old future?"

"You're back!" said a voice from behind them. They all turned to see Giles, who had just entered the library, cup in hand. "You were successful I hope," he asked.

Faith walked over to Giles and walked around him, carefully studying the Englishman.

"Looks like the same old Giles to me," she said. "Right size and no tail that I can see."

"Tail?" asked a puzzled Giles.

"Well we found out a lot about what happened in the past but we don't know how useful it'll be," said Daniel.

"And I can now find out what happens in the future," said a voice from the other side of the room. A young woman walked out from between the bookshelves.

"Dawn!" said Giles. "When did you get back?"

"Dawn?" said the young woman puzzled. "Who's Dawn? My name is Lissie."


	52. Circles within Circles

**Chapter Fifty Two: Circles within Circles**

"You're sure?" asked Buffy, raising her voice to be heard over the sound of the wind rushing past them.

"I'm sure," replied Phoebe from her position in front of Buffy on the back of the dragon. "I saw Dawn there. If we go back to the city we'll see her again. She's still part of all this. We've got to go back to the city and join up with all the others."

"And she's alright?" asked Buffy. "She's gonna be alright?"

"As much as any of us are alright," said Phoebe. "She looked alright to me. I suppose whether we stay alright depends on how we tackle things when we get there. We've got to find some way to shield the planet from the Goa'uld attack."

I wish I'd seen my sisters in my vision thought Phoebe. They must be OK she told herself. I'd know if they weren't wouldn't I? But a lot of what's happening seems to center on Dawn. And as usual we only get bits and pieces of the picture, just enough to move us around the chess board.

Xander rode as the third passenger aboard the dragon carrying Phoebe and Buffy. Angel, Connor and Drusilla were on a second dragon flying closely behind them.

"Just wait until I tell Anya about riding on a dragon," said Xander. "I'd like to see her top that."

"You don't think she couldn't?" said Buffy. "I bet you she's ridden on dragons before." Or she'll claim she has, Buffy added silently to herself. Anya could be a valuable source of information about things nobody else remembered but she could also tell the most unbelievable stories. Of course that didn't mean they weren't all true given that Anya had been a demon for many centuries, but Buffy had her doubts.

"She'd better be there, that's all I'm saying," said Connor. "I told Dawn I'd keep her safe and now she's disappeared. As soon as we can we should all go back home. There's way too much magic around this place. It's a danger to all of us. The sooner we get away from it the better."

"Didn't you bring her here to get away from the magic back in Sunnydale?" asked Drusilla.

"Yeah and look how well that's worked out," said Connor. "There are other ways to deal with Wolfram and Hart to stop them messing with us. That's something I'm gonna see to when I get back."

"Well if we don't stop the Goa'uld here we'll soon have to face them back home as well," said Angel. "And if they take over Kallistien they'll have all the Kallistien witches working for them. With their help they'll be able to take over a lot more places, including maybe the Earth."

"Ah, the good old domino theory," muttered Drusilla. "You should stand for election."

Angel didn't reply to that comment. He knew Drusilla realised the truth of what he was saying. She didn't like to show it too openly but Drusilla's point of view was now very different ever since Willow had given her a soul. Drusilla wanted to help the Kallistians as much as anybody else.

The journey continued for a while in silence. Xander was the only one enjoying the flight, everybody else was lost in their own thoughts. How much longer thought Buffy, impatient to arrive back in the city. What we need is a Whitelighter to orb us all over the place. We were really spoilt by having Tara around. That brought another concern to mind. I hope Tara's OK, wherever she is. Hell, I hope everybody's OK.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Back in Sunnydale?" said Lilah into the phone. "You're sure...? No, no objections. But I would have thought those school kids might object if they found out... Oh, right... Well if you put if off much longer it'll be too late. Have you seen the news lately? Well I'll be there with my people tomorrow ready to go. If you're not ready you'll be responsible for the consequences and you'll have all the explaining to do."

Lilah put the phone down and looked at Colonel Maybourne who was sat in a chair in front of her desk. "They're stalling," she said. "They don't want to go through with it until their people get back from Kallistien but they're running out of time. Their people don't even know they should be rushing back home and they've got no way to get word to them. And anyway they're pretty busy right where they are just now."

"You said Sunnydale," said Maybourne suspiciously. "Back in Sunnydale. What did you mean by that? Whatever you do with the Gates has to be in Sunnydale or at the SGC or both so it shouldn't be a surprise you have to go to Sunnydale."

"Yes, why Sunnydale?" said Lilah half to herself. "I suppose because that's where the witches have their base and as you say that's where they have their Stargate. They hope to be able to control things there. Are they in for a surprise. Anyway it suits us just as well. It'll mean everything the other side gained last time will be out the window. Even if we don't get everything we want they'll be literally right back where they started and we'll be ready to make our next move."

"The other side?" queried Maybourne. "Who exactly is on the other side? The other side to you that is? And what do you mean by the last time?"

And why do you think I don't know you're hiding a lot of things from me he added to himself. All the cryptic remarks are meant to get me to ask questions he realised, just so Lilah can make herself look good.

"You know who the other side are," said Lilah. "Those witches and their friends including that whole gang of people who are stuck on that other planet. Once this is finished they'll have no way back, I'm glad to say. Things will be a lot easier without them to get in everybody's way all the time."

"And the last time?" repeated Maybourne.

"You were there when Hammond turned up," said Lilah deliberately not mentioning anything about the closure of the Hellmouth which was what she had really been thinking about. She wasn't sure how Maybourne would react to talk of a Hellmouth.

Lilah and Maybourne were back in her LA office in the Wolfram and Hart building. She was no longer being actively sought by the SGC. After Leo had told General Hammond what was really happening he had called off the search for her. By now Colonel Maybourne had been released since it had not been possible to prove he was acting against the SGC or against his orders.

"Do you mean the Gates will stay shut? Because I thought the whole idea was to open them up again," asked Maybourne. "That's certainly what I want."

"Don't worry," said Lilah. "The Gates on Earth will be OK. But I don't think it'll bother you if the SGC stay where they are permanently."

There were times when Maybourne wondered whether everybody would be better off if he just pulled out his gun and shot Lilah Morgan dead. This was one of those times. But then again Maybourne had seen enough strange things by now to know that a bullet in the heart wasn't always fatal. Lilah was just the person to have protection ready against that sort of thing.

Maybourne regarded himself as a patriot even if others had a different opinion of him. Yes, he was ruthless and he would love to see the SGC replaced by something better, something accountable to the NID, but that didn't mean he simply wanted to settle scores with them and see them dead.

Yet again Lilah had assumed that his loyalties and his aims were as dubious and frankly evil as her own. Although he did not react to this he was getting sick of it. As far as he was concerned, if it was a choice between Lilah Morgan and Wolfram and Hart on the one hand and the SGC on the other he would take the SGC every time. There were lines he and the SGC would not step over. Not the same lines of course but lines. He was sure the same could not be said about Lilah Morgan and whoever were the powers behind Wolfram and Hart.

"So how do you plan to achieve that?" asked Maybourne. "If the Gates start working again they'll be able to dial home like they usually do."

"You'd think so wouldn't you," said Lilah. "But I can guarantee that won't happen. When we've finished, the planet of Kallistien will be cut off permanently. Either that or there won't be a planet of Kallistien any more."

She's lying thought Maybourne. She's very good but she's lying. She must be, her lips are moving. But what is she really up to? Is Hammond right? Does she actually want to destroy the Earth? Or destroy the world of Kallistien and the millions of people on it? Is she that big a maniac? And why does she want to involve me again?

"Well I didn't come here just to be somebody you could boast to like a third rate B-movie villain," said Maybourne. "For the moment let's assume you're gonna pull this off, just the way you plan to. Why do you need me? I'm certainly not going to have anything to do with destroying a world full of people."

"Maybe I just wanted to say sorry for leaving you in the lurch the last time?" suggested Lilah, unconvincingly.

"Try again," said Maybourne. He didn't believe it and he knew Lilah didn't expect him to.

"OK," said Lilah. "Let's assume things go down the way we want them to. What are you going to do next?"

"Continue as a loyal hardworking officer of the NID," said Maybourne. As if I'd tell you anything else he added to himself.

"If SG-1 and all those other US personnel don't get back from Kallistien, don't you think things will look bad for the SGC?" asked Lilah. "Won't there be an inquiry? Won't somebody, like say General Hammond, have to take the blame?"

"And how will it be Hammond's fault?" asked Maybourne, interested in spite of his scepticism.

"Hammond has been working with witches and other dubious characters," said Lilah. "And as a result he has compromised the working of the Stargates. That's what it looks like doesn't it? He's had witches casting magic spells on his precious Stargate and look what's happened. It doesn't work any more. He's been messing with things he shouldn't have touched and the people he trusted have disappeared."

"If what Hammond's done results in the loss of valuable people and a downgrading of our capacity to defend against the Goa'uld, don't you think that would be grounds for a wholesale change in the control of the SGC? Especially if an organisation like the NID were to issue warnings ahead of time, just so you could say 'told you so' after it all goes down."

"I see your point," muttered Maybourne. It was something he had already thought about. He knew it could be a big opportunity to close down the SGC for good. He had already spoken to Kinsey about what to do if the Stargate closure was permanent. He knew that Kinsey was already applying pressure in his own way.

But whatever happened it wouldn't be as straightforward as Lilah was suggesting. If he knew Hammond, he had already covered himself by clearing everything with senior command or even direct with the President. As Kinsey himself had said, it might not be possible to shift Hammond until the next President took office.

Lilah could see Maybourne was now thinking furiously. As usual she was working on several levels. Keeping the NID and the SGC at odds had been one of the more successful long term objectives of Wolfram and Hart. Keeping that particular pot boiling would help prevent either organisation from devoting all of its attention to other matters.

But if Wolfram and Hart's main plan for the apocalypse succeeded there wouldn't be an NID, an SGC or even a US of A she thought. All their petty bickering and plotting would be swept away along with everything else. But no harm in having a backup just in case.

Because if for some reason the Earth was not destroyed the second prize for Lilah and Wolfram and Hart would be the loss of the people currently exiled on Kallistien. Lilah was certain that there was now no way they could get back, whatever happened, so that part of the plan would be a success even if the apocalypse was averted again.

Once the dust settled, the Wolfram and Hart influenced NID would be in prime position to take advantage of the SGC's alleged failures. And that would lead, sooner rather than later, to Wolfram and Hart controlled Stargates.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I've got it," said Sam looking up from her control board. Sam, Jack and Teal'c were currently in the Control Room of the Goa'uld ship that they and the others had captured.

"Well don't give it to me," said Jack. "Anyway I've already had it."

Sam gave Jack one of her long suffering looks. Teal'c just looked at him and raised his eyebrows in his best Mister Spock manner.

"I know what we haven't allowed for," continued Sam. "I know just what Apophis is going to do. Trouble is I don't know how we can stop it."

"Apophis will fire off all of his missiles at the planet immediately before he evacuates the crews of his ships through the Stargates," said Teal'c. "That is, if he cannot stop his ships being pulled back to the planet and the Stargates do indeed start working again."

"That's just what I was going to say," said Sam. "You've not been taking lessons in mind reading from the witches have you?"

"Coincidence," said Teal'c. "The thought has only just occurred to me. There is no possibility of Apophis surrendering himself or his ships."

"I think you guys are partly right but if I were Apophis there's something else I would do," said Jack. "I'd send part of my fleet on ahead to attack the planet with missiles. A sort of kamikaze unit. They would try to take out whatever it is that's pulling the Goa'uld fleet back to the planet. If it doesn't work and they just crash onto the planet he's no worse off than he is now. But if it does work Apophis and the rest of his fleet will be able to break free and do whatever he wants."

"And if he does have units on the moons he might order them to attack as well," said Sam.

"Yeah, so we could be faced with a serious attack on the planet before too much longer," said Jack. "Anybody thought of any way to stop such an attack? We won't even have this ship for very much longer."

"No, I am afraid I have not," replied Teal'c. "Not beyond sending a warning to the planet with a hope that the witches will somehow be able to block or divert any attack."

"OK, we'll do that of course," said Jack. "If we get the chance we'll also use the missiles we've got on our ship to take out as many Goa'uld missiles as possible. But that won't be enough to stop a major attack by the whole Goa'uld fleet, not by a long way."

"Maybe the people down on the planet, Willow, Phoebe and the rest, can find a way to reverse that force somehow," suggested Sam. "If it's strong enough to pull in ships from so far away it should be plenty strong enough to push away any missile barrage."

"We should also prepare our shuttle ships to take part in the defence," said Teal'c. "We can deploy them as a screen across the path of the incoming missile barrage. But that will only be sufficient to stop a small part of the incoming missiles."

"A question Major," said Jack to Sam. "Let's suppose Apophis does fire off his missiles and let's suppose a lot of them get through any sort of defence we can put up."

"This ship will probably have been destroyed by the time any missiles from his main fleet arrive sir," said Sam.

"Agreed. But those missiles might be subject to the same force that's pulling in all the ships. It might just pull them all down onto the same spot," continued Jack. "If that happens is it a good thing or a bad thing? Obviously it'll be a bad thing for anybody near the explosions but won't that leave most of the planet untouched? We could suggest an emergency evacuation away from the impact point to save as many people as possible."

"I'll have to do some calculations to be sure sir," said Sam. "But I think that sort of scenario is just about the worst possible thing that could happen. If the missiles all hit together and make up one big explosion it could just about bust the whole planet wide open. It might make a much bigger explosion than the meteorite hit that destroyed the dinosaurs. Even if the planet was still there afterwards there would be nothing left alive and what was left of the planet would be uninhabitable."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well it seems straightforward enough to me. Lissie's here, she's got the Key," said Daniel." He turned away from Giles towards Lissie: "You have got the Key with you haven't you?"

"I know where it is," said Lissie. "But I'm not agreeing to anything yet. Not before I know more about what's going on around here."

"OK, let's assume Lissie can be persuaded to help save her home planet," said Daniel. "She gets the Key, the sisters do their magic and goodbye to the Gou'ld. Problem solved."

"But we don't know how that will affect Dawn," said Giles.

"You said Dawn's Buffy's sister right?" asked Daniel. "And she looks a lot like Lissie. I'm guessing you think that's more than a coincidence."

"We know that Dawn is linked to the Key," began Giles.

"Hey, no more secrets," said Faith. "We're all in this together. We were told Dawn was the Key. Some old time monks used to look after the Key back on Earth. They said they did some hocus-pocus on it to change it into a person. Dawn's the person."

"So now we have two Keys on this planet at the same time," said Piper.

"Or rather the same Key twice," said Paige looking at Lissie. "And two people who look much the same, except Lissie is a few years younger."

"We know the Key's a very powerful article," said Prue. "If we have it here twice we might get double the affect we got back in the past."

"Which might be very dangerous and not what we want," said Giles. "And the affects might be multiplied rather than simply added together. The Key is a very dangerous tool. It can be used to open up all the portals to the Hell Dimensions at the same time. If that happens everything and everybody will be destroyed. And then there are the problems with the Stargates."

"Problems with the Stargates?" asked Daniel. "What problems?"

"They've all stopped working," said Giles. "Or rather the ones we know about have stopped working and none of your SG people can get any response out of them. Some of the witches have tried magic on them but that doesn't work either. The whole Stargate network might have shut down. We have no way of knowing. We think it might be something to do with the Key because it happened just after Dawn came through the Gate into the city. We can't just use the Key without knowing exactly what we're doing and what the consequences will be."

"Nobody's using the Key," said Buffy walking into the room. "And that's final."

"What if the only alternative is to have this planet destroyed by the Goa'uld?" asked Daniel. "The Goa'uld have got some major firepower on their ships. If they get to use it there'll be nothing left here but cinders, and that'll include your sister as well as all the rest of us."


	53. Going Down Below

**Chapter Fifty Three: Going Down Below**

Willow could feel the rage rising up inside her. It was worry about Tara and the feeling that something bad had happened to her, something caused by Wolfram and Hart, that was causing Willow to boil and the proximity of the Hellmouth didn't help. She had never trusted Eve and she knew that Cordelia had the same opinion. If Tara wasn't alright somebody was going to pay for it big time.

But Willow wasn't too far gone that she wasn't able to pull back from the brink. She had to stay calm. How could she help Tara if she lost control? I'm so not gonna do that, Willow told herself as she struggled to suppress the darkness within her.

I promised Tara it wouldn't happen again, no matter what happened thought Willow. I can't break my word to Tara, not again, not ever again. Tara had never said it in so many words but Willow had the distinct impression that if she went dark again there was no going back a second time. If she couldn't control herself she could say goodbye to her link with Tara. After such an event there was no way that Tara would be able to stay with her, even if she wanted to.

"Don't get mad, get even," whispered Anya from beside her.

Cordelia heard this and responded at once. "We don't know if there's any reason to get even yet," she said with a venomous glance across at Anya. We need to keep Willow calm not stir her up even more she thought.

Cordelia returned her gaze to Willow. "Just stay in control, whatever happens. Whatever happens! We're right by a Hellmouth. If you lose it here you'll take us all down with you. You can't go wrong if you always do what Tara would want you to do. And you know her well enough to always know what that would be."

"I'm...I'm alright. I'm ready for a fight but only using white magic," said Willow. "But we can't trust Eve, you guys know that."

Eve had followed the exchange with a bemused expression on her face. "What are you blaming me for?" she said. "Tara needs your help, Wesley's with her now. It's not far." Eve turned towards the glow coming from the ground behind her but stopped when she realised that nobody was following.

"You want us to follow you into that Hellmouth?" asked Cordelia. "I don't think so."

"You're just going to abandon Tara and Wesley?" asked Eve. "I thought they were your friends." She looked at Willow. "And rather more," she added.

"This stinks," said Gwen. "We follow the Wolfram and Hart lady into a Hellmouth. How stupid does she think we are?"

"But we've got to go," said Willow, now back in control of herself. "Or at least I've got to go. I know Tara's down there, I can feel it. Even if this is a trap, I've got to go and I'm going."

"Well I'm going too," said Kennedy. "You're going to need a slayer to watch your back. If it is a trap they're gonna find they've trapped a lot more than they can handle."

"We'll all go," said Anya. "That's the safest option."

"Is it?" asked Cordelia. "What if they want to trap us all inside the Hellmouth?" Somebody's got to stay here to keep it open and guard it until Willow gets back with Tara and Wesley."

"OK, no more debate," said Willow. "We don't have the time." We've got to trust Eve until we have reason not to she thought. But if I find out she's working against us she's going to regret it big time. But that's for later. Right now I can't stay here when I know Tara's down there.

"I've got to get moving now," continued Willow. "Eve will take me and Kennedy to Tara and Wesley. The rest of you stay here and watch the Hellmouth. Keep it open for us if you can and if you can stop any nasties from coming out. We'll be back as soon as possible and then we'll work together to shut this down somehow."

"But what's pulling the spaceships down?" asked Anya. "Isn't that why we're here?" But she got no reply. Willow had grabbed Eve's hand and rushed off followed by Kennedy. As Anya and the others watched, Willow, Eve and Kennedy jumped into the still glowing hole that was the open Hellmouth.

"And what if the evil plan is to break us up into small groups to make it easier to squash us separately?" asked Gwen quietly.

"I don't think Willow's in the mood to be squashed by anyone or anything," said Cordelia. "Would you want to get between her and Tara?"

"Don't say that while Xander's around, you'll give him ideas," said Anya.

"Xander's had those sort of ideas for a long time," said Cordelia.

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Dawn sat up suddenly. She must have dozed off she thought because she still felt sleepy. But wait a minute, what's going on? Where am I?

Dawn got to her feet and looked around. Her last memory was of talking to Buffy and the others just after all of the demons had been killed. They had been outside the building in that Kallistien town where she had been hiding with Angel and the others but now she was somewhere else. Where? And why? And how?

Dawn found herself standing next to a bed in a small room. It was the most basic of bedrooms, little more than a cell really with bare stone walls and a bare stone floor. Apart from the bed there was nothing there except a chair and a bowl of water on a small table. There was not even anywhere to hang clothes, not so much as a hook on the back of the door. There was a small window which let in daylight but it was well above where Dawn could look out since it was just under the high ceiling.

Dawn now realised that she was no longer dressed in her own clothes. She was wearing a long grey dress which reached down to the floor. The dress looked new and hand made. The decoration around the neck and cuffs must have taken a lot of time and skill she thought. Never mind all that she told herself. What's going on? Where am I?

The door didn't seem to have a lock fitted but it could have bolts on the other side thought Dawn. She was considering trying to open it when there was a knock on the door: "It's time," called a male voice. "We're all ready."

Dawn opened the door and looked out. There were two people waiting for her in the corridor outside. The man who had knocked on the door was no more than about twenty years old. He had jet black hair and was dressed in a somewhat medieval combination of tunic and trousers. Something like the way Robin Hood was usually depicted but without a hood and in grey rather than green.

The fair haired woman was a few years older than the man and wore a dress similar to the one Dawn was wearing but somewhat paler. Like the man she was surprised at what she saw when she looked at Dawn.

"What's happened to you?" asked the woman. "You look... different. Older somehow."

"Yes," said the man. "What's going on?"

"What's going on!" said Dawn. "That's what I want to know. Who are you people, and where is this place?"

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"Still no response from the Gate," said Sam as she walked back into the Control Centre of the ship. "I still can't get it to work. I've checked with the team stationed at the one down on the planet and that's still off line as well. So far your bluff's not working out."

"Just as well," said Jack. "If the Gates start working before we figure out some way to protect the planet from Apophis's missiles, we're in big trouble. So long as he's got no other way to evacuate his ships he'll probably wait until he's a lot closer before firing."

"How about firing off our missiles at his fleet now sir, just to keep him busy?" suggested Sam.

"I'm afraid that's a no-no," said Jack. "Apophis has still got prisoners on board his ships. And our witches would still be upset if we hid behind their magic while we started killing people." Jack shrugged. "I'd still do it to save the planet if I thought it'd do any good but we'd never be able to take out all those ships anyway. Not with only one ship of our own."

Sam had now taken her seat back at the controls and was studying the instruments in front of her. "We've only got a couple of hours before we're out of the game anyway, at least as far as this ship is concerned," she said. "If we don't use our missiles soon we won't be able to use them at all."

"I'm waiting to hear back from Teal'c's after he's checked out how things stand down on the planet," said Jack. "As soon as he calls..."

Jack was interrupted by a comment from Sergeant Paisley. "Missile launch sir. The Goa'uld fleet has launched missiles. And I'm detecting activity on the largest of the moons. I think a couple of Apophis's ships are taking off."

"OK," said Jack. "First priority is to target those ships that are taking off. They're the nearest danger. I just hope there aren't any captives on board."

"They're small ships sir," said Sam. "Apophis will have his captured witches on board his flagship to protect him."

"Good, then we can take out the smaller ships," said Jack. "Get us as close as you can to them if you can still manoeuvre at all. If I get grief from our witches I'll just have to try to sweet talk them later."

Sam grimaced at this but out of Jack's sight. "I'm afraid changing course will just crash us into the planet a lot quicker. We won't be able to get much closer to those ships whatever we do sir," said Sam. "But we might be able to hit them with enough of a barrage from our missiles to destroy them."

"OK, do it," ordered Jack. "How many missiles have been launched by Apophis's main fleet sergeant?" asked Jack.

"Ten sir," said Sergeant Paisley.

"So he's got a particular target in mind," said Jack. "He's not aiming to destroy the whole planet yet. Do you think he knows where we are Carter?"

"Possibly sir," replied Sam. "But more likely he's targeting the source of the force that's pulling him back to the planet. He will have been able to calculate where it's coming from just as well as we have."

"Prepare a counter strike to take out all of the incoming missiles after we've dealt with those other ships," said Jack. "We've got to give the people on the planet as much time and protection as possible while we're still up here."

But unless they come up with some way of stopping Apophis themselves the whole planet is likely to die he added, but only to himself.

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The confrontation in the witches' library was interrupted before it really got started by Phoebe's reunion with her sisters. While this was going on Faith introduced Lissie properly to Giles and Buffy. Meanwhile Xander and Angel began questioning Daniel about what had happened back in the past.

Giles decided it would be simplest all round if the time travellers were given the opportunity to explain what had happened to the group as a whole. He called for everybody's attention.

"If we don't get organised everybody will have to keep on repeating themselves and some of us might never get the full picture," he said. "If we can all keep quiet while the time travellers explain things, we can save a lot of time. Uh-hem, no pun intended of course."

Everybody found a place to sit while Prue and Daniel, with further comments from the others every now and again, explained what had happened. Giles provided a summary of what had happened in the present whilst the others had been away.

"So when exactly did Lissie appear here in our present," asked Buffy. "Because I'm thinking that might be the moment when Dawn disappeared."

"Dawn's disappeared?" asked Giles. "What happened?"

Buffy explained about Dawn fading away after they had destroyed the demons. "Is that what happens with time travel?" she asked "Does it stop there being two of you in the same time? Has Dawn gone back to the past where Lissie came from?"

"Well as far as we know Dawn and Lissie are different people. But it doesn't matter because you can have two of you at the same time," said Piper. "We've done it. When we first did a time travel spell we met our younger selves. Nobody disappeared then."

"But that was when we went back into the past," said Phoebe. "Lissie has gone into the future, her future. Things were different when we went into the future. The rules seem to be different."

"In what way?" asked Buffy, still hoping that nothing serious had happened and that there was an easy way to get Dawn back.

"We actually became our future selves," said Piper.

"Your older selves?" asked Angel. "Because that's not what's happened with Lissie. She's obviously a few years younger than Dawn. Even though they look the same they seem to be different people."

"So you don't know why Dawn disappeared just about the same time Lissie arrived then?" asked Buffy. "There must be some connection."

Buffy was thinking furiously about how to get Dawn back. An idea was beginning to take shape in her mind. She was sure Willow would help when she got back but maybe she could persuade the Halliwells to take part if Willow wasn't here soon. Could she go back in time to before Dawn disappeared and stop it happening? Before she did that she had to find out what made it happen.

"It must be to do with the Key," said Faith. "You might be able to have two of the same person in the same time but perhaps you can't have two of the same Key."

"I've been researching the Key," said Giles. "Before we go any further I've got something to show you all, especially you Buffy."

Giles went over to the pile of books that were still in place on the library table. These were the ones he had asked the librarians not to put back on the shelves for the time being because he had not yet finished with them. He took a volume from the top of the pile and spoke the unlocking spell. He then turned the pages to where he had placed a bookmark. He set the open book down on the table and stood back.

"What do you think of that picture?" he asked. On the right hand page of the open book was a large illustration. It was a detailed drawing of a young woman.

"It's Dawn!" said Buffy. "What does the book say?"

"It might be Lissie," said Daniel looking at the picture, then at Lissie and then back again.

"Or somebody else who resembles them both," suggested Connor as some of the others crowded round to get a look.

"It says this is a picture of the last keeper after she was no longer linked to the Key," said Giles.

"What else does it say?" asked Buffy.

"Well it describes the Key as an ancient artefact, independent of time and space," said Giles.

"And what does that mean?" asked Xander.

"If you'll let me finish," said Giles.

"It says the Key that we see is only an aspect of the Key, a sort of way of contacting the larger reality which is the real Key," continued Giles.

"What does it say about the Keeper?" asked Prue.

"It says the Keeper is the one designated to be responsible for the Key, to make sure it is used wisely and safely," said Lissie. Everybody turned to look at her. "I've seen that book before," she explained. "It was an old book even back in my time."

"So that isn't a picture of you then?" asked Daniel.

"Nope," said Lissie. "It looks a lot like me, but it's not me."

"No, it's Dawn. It's a picture of my sister," said Buffy who hadn't stopped staring at the picture. "Not somebody who resembles her."

"How can you be sure?" asked Giles.

"Because she's wearing the necklace that mom left her," said Buffy. "The one she was wearing when she disappeared."

"That's right," said Xander studying the picture carefully. "And doesn't Dawn wear a ring just like that one?" he added, pointing to the ring on the right hand of the young woman in the picture.

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"You must be able to feel it," said Cordelia. "You're a witch now, the same as me."

"I might be some sort of a witch now rather than a demon, but I'm certainly not like you," said Anya. Why would I want to be like Cordy she thought? Just because she went to Sunnydale High, dated Xander, was betrayed by Xander, helped Buffy and the gang... No, she thought I'm nothing like Cordy. Ridiculous!

"Perhaps if you described it," suggested Gwen.

"It's some sort of energy," began Cordelia. "It's rising up out of the Hellmouth. You can't see it but it's like the heat from a fire. You can feel it even when your eyes are closed."

"Except we can't," said Anya. "Only you can feel it."

"That must be the force that's pulling all the spaceships down," said Gwen. "Isn't that what we came here to shut down? Shouldn't we be doing that now?"

"Yes we should but we need to know what it is first," said Cordelia walking closer to the hole in the basement floor of the hotel which was the open entrance to the Hellmouth.

"Why?" asked Anya. "Why don't we just shut it down now? We don't need to understand it to shut it down. Just block off that hole and make sure nothing else comes up out of it."

"I don't think we've got enough magic power with just the two of us to shut down a Hellmouth," said Cordelia. "Remember it took a whole lot more of us to shut down the Sunnydale Hellmouth. We don't know who opened this up and what they are up to, but they won't be happy when we try to shut it down again. We have to be ready for a fight."

"Well if we don't do something soon we'll have a lot of spaceships falling on our heads," said Anya. "That's what Willow said."

"We can't shut the Hellmouth before the others get back," said Gwen. "They'd be trapped. We'll have a much better chance of dealing with this when Willow's here to help."

"Tara will be able to orb them out of there," said Anya. "Or I hope she will. I hope she's alright."

"So do we," said Cordelia. "But if Tara could orb out of the Hell Dimension why isn't she here now? I think this force is something different to what we had in Sunnydale. If we'd had this sort of thing in Sunnydale we'd have had spaceships falling on our heads all the time."

"No we wouldn't," said Anya. "The Hellmouth was never open for very long. Buffy and the rest of us always made sure to shut it up again as soon as something opened it. We don't know what might happen if a Hellmouth was just left open for a long time."

"Apart from all the demons and vampires coming out of it you mean," said Gwen.

"I'm still not convinced," said Cordelia. "I think somebody is playing games here. I don't think this force is a normal part of the Hellmouth. Somebody is doing something else. Somebody is playing games and I don't want to make the obvious move."

"Eve?" suggested Gwen. "Wolfram and Hart? Both?"

"I suppose you're right," said Anya. "I've heard of all sorts of Hellmouths over the centuries and I never heard of one that pulled down things from outer space. But if somebody else is doing all this where are they?"

"Inside the Hellmouth?" suggested Gwen. "Does that mean Willow and Kennedy really have walked into a trap?"


	54. Together at Last

**Chapter Fifty Four: Together at Last**

Willow let Eve lead the way to where she said she had left Tara and Wesley. Kennedy acted as rear guard. Willow could still feel the thread that connected her to Tara so she knew the direction to go but that was 'as the crow flies'. The straightest route was not always the easiest route. Besides, Willow thought, letting Eve lead the way would act as something of a test, to see if she really was taking them to find Tara.

After jumping into the open hole which was the entrance to this particular Hellmouth Willow was surprised by what she found. Without giving it any particular thought she had expected to be faced with something similar to the desolate landscape that she remembered after passing through the Sunnydale Hellmouth. But this particular Hell Dimension was very different, or at least this particular part of it was very different.

For one thing it was hot, tropically hot or maybe even hotter. For another it was oppressively humid. Everything was covered in damp and there was a strong smell of rotten vegetation. That was another major difference; vegetation. The area was an exotic jungle with many strange and perhaps dangerous types of plant growing in profusion all around them.

But it was a Hell dimension alright. The myriad of flying insects made sure of that. There was a constant swarm of such creatures all around them, a swarm that Willow quickly kept at bay with a muttered repulsion spell. Being bitten by Hell insects could easily lead to disease or worse.

"How did you know where to find the Hellmouth from this side?" asked Willow as she followed behind Eve. "You certainly wouldn't have been able to see it from wherever it is you left Tara and Wesley."

"I've got my own compass," said Eve, turning and holding it out to show Willow. "I made sure to have one with me when I first came into Kallistien with Wesley and Jenny. It still works down here. We were able to see the fireworks in the distance when the Hellmouth was opened up. I took a bearing on it. When I reached that hole in the side of the cliff I climbed up and found myself where you found me at the entrance to the Hellmouth. I could see from what was lying around in the cellar that I was back in Kallistien."

The hole leading from the hotel cellar down into the hell dimension was not a sheer drop but rather provided an angled passage down into the lower world. It came out near the base of a small cliff. It would not have been difficult for Eve to have climbed up and into the cellar of the hotel.

"How did you know this was a Hellmouth?" asked Kennedy as the three women continued on their way. "What you saw might just have been some of the local demons letting off steam, or whatever it is demons let off."

"Tara," said Eve. "She told us she would get us as close to the entrance to Kallistien as possible. She passed out after the last orb. She'd travelled all the way from Earth through a series of Hell Dimensions to try to get back to Kallistien before she turned up to rescue us. I think she was exhausted."

"You and Wesley had better tell us where you've been, what you've been doing," said Willow. "But not now, when we've reached Wesley and Tara and have somewhere safe to stop."

Eve nodded. "Anyway when we saw the big display in the sky Wesley suggested it marked the location of the Hellmouth. He was right."

Well, she's got an answer for everything thought Willow. But I'm not convinced. I'm not going to trust her any more than I have to. I've still got those spells handy that I can use straightaway if I need to. "How far do we have to travel to find Tara?" she asked.

"We have to trek through the jungle for a while until we find ourselves at the bottom of a slope. When we get to the top of the slope there's another cliff," explained Eve. "There's a cave half way up the cliff. Wes carried Tara up the path leading up there. We were going to have a look around from the top of the cliff but when we found the cave we decided it was somewhere we could defend and rest until Tara felt stronger. But when she was still unconscious the next morning we thought it better for one of us to try to find help."

Eve continued to lead the way through the jungle. They struggled through the unpleasant conditions, sometimes going knee deep in the muddy, squelchy, smelly ground underfoot. Willow began to concentrate on not losing her shoes and making sure she reached her destination. But her concentration was disturbed by Kennedy.

"They're getting closer," she said.

"They? Who's they?" asked Willow.

"I dunno," said Kennedy. "But they've been on our trail for the past few minutes and there are more of them coming from the right. We need to move faster."

"OK," said Willow. She hadn't so far used much magic since she entered the Hell Dimension because she didn't want to attract the wrong sort of attention. But clearly the time had come when they were attracting attention anyway. "Freeze!" she commanded holding her hands out in front of her and the ground ahead of them froze into a solid mass.

The ground did not become like a piece of arctic tundra. At this temperature that wouldn't have lasted long. What Willow had visualised was a path of solid ground leading away from them towards their destination. With a leap out of the mud Willow went ahead of Eve and reached the solid ground. She lead the way up the slope as she ran in and out of the trees followed closely by the others.

Finally Willow reached the top of the slope where with a final gasp she halted. She took a moment to get her breath back as she leaned up against the cliff towering above them. "Where do we go from here?" she began and stopped as she recognised the phrase. She smiled to herself as she remembered Tara's song but only briefly as her thoughts were interrupted by Eve.

"This way!" said Eve who was already angling off to the left. "There's a rough path going up the cliff."

But Eve had to stop almost at once as a large black something staggered out of the jungle and reared up in front of her. Whatever it was it was twice the size of a bear although it had a blurry outline. But it definitely had big teeth, hissed loudly and seemed to be very hungry.

The monster was large but thankfully not very fast. Eve fell to the ground to avoid a large swinging claw. As she scrambled back away from it the creature reared back as if it was ready to come down on top of her. It never got the chance as the fast moving slayer arrived, leapt in the air and took off its head with her flashing sword.

"We've got to keep moving quickly," shouted Eve. She was already back on her feet and jumped over the still wriggling body almost before it hit the ground. She once more led the way through the jungle alongside the base of the cliff.

They had now left Willow's frozen ground, but the footing was firmer around the rocky base of the cliff anyway so she did not need to repeat the spell. Kennedy allowed Willow to go past her following Eve and once more took station as rear guard.

"Nearly there," said Eve a few minutes later as they struggled up the cliff path. Once they had begun their ascent of the cliff they had naturally slowed down. The path might have been deliberately carved out of the cliff face at some time in the past but if so it had not been maintained for a very long time. It was now mostly a crumbly, narrow path which was constantly being further broken down by the tropical downpours which regularly hit the area.

A rock suddenly flew past Willow, apparently thrown from above. She heard a yell behind her and carefully turned, making sure not to lose her footing. On the path below a dog like creature had been hit and was now falling into the jungle at the bottom of the cliff. Kennedy, who had been facing the creature, now turned and hurried up to join Willow.

"Keep moving," said Kennedy. "I've got your back."

Willow turned back and hurried after Eve. A few moments later Willow could see the head of Wesley poking out of the cave above her. He had another rock ready to throw but for the moment no targets. Willow continued her ascent and finally arrived at the cave entrance.

"Good to see you," said Wesley. "You didn't lose anybody in the jungle on the way here I hope."

"No, just the two of us came with Eve," said Willow. "Where's Tara?"

"Over here," replied Wesley indicating the back of the cave. He turned to the newly arrived Kennedy. "If you could guard the cave entrance?"

"Relax," said Kennedy. "Anything small enough to get in here is not gonna be big enough to get past me."

Willow had already passed deeper into the cave and did not hear the conversation between Wesley and Kennedy. She had called a witch light to lighten up the cave and her full attention was now on Tara who was lying on her side. Willow immediately knelt down alongside her unconscious partner.

"I can't see any wounds," she said after a moment looking up at Wesley.

"She wasn't wounded," said Wesley. "She just collapsed. I think the journey she was on including protection spells, all that orbing as well as carrying us to safety just got to her. We were hoping that rest and sleep would restore her."

"Maybe I can speed up the restoration a little," said Willow. She placed her hand on Tara's forehead and concentrated on sending a trickle of her own strength into her partner.

Wesley watched and then took a brief glance back to Eve and Kennedy at the cave entrance to make sure everything there remained quiet. He returned his attention to Tara and Willow. Slowly Tara moved a little in her sleep, something he had not seen happen before in the long hours since she had collapsed. As he watched, Tara sleepily reached out and took hold of Willow's hand.

"I think you're having an affect," said Wesley. "I think she's now sleeping naturally rather than just being unconscious."

Willow resisted the impulse to try to wake Tara up completely. Unless it became urgent she wanted Tara to wake up naturally and have as much recovery time as possible. By now the still sleeping Tara had a firm grip of Willow's hand which she hugged to her like a child's cuddly toy. As Willow watched she was sure she could see a small smile form on Tara's face. Willow now lay down beside Tara and snuggled close.

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"I told them they had to wait," said Gunn coming back into the house and then into the front lounge. "They're going to be staying in a house a couple of streets away. I've got a number to call when we're ready. We don't want Lilah and her pet goons inside this building for any longer than we have to. She bitched about it of course."

"Of course," said Fred. "But we can't do anything before the Whitelighters get back anyway. I wonder what's taking them so long."

At that moment there was a minor tremor. But everybody was becoming so used to that sort of thing, that it didn't even interrupt the conversation.

"The longer the better as far as I'm concerned," said Lorne. "I'm not convinced we should go through with this at all. Not until some of our people get back, some of the major magic users."

"You don't think I can handle things?" asked Amy. "I'll have you know I've been a witch all my life. That's way longer than Willow or the Halliwells."

"Yeah, but could you have shut down the old Hellmouth all by yourself and dealt with all the things trying to get out without their help?" asked Gunn. "Sometimes you need help however strong you are."

"OK, I'll show you something of what I can do and you can judge how strong I am," began Amy but Fred quickly grabbed Amy's raised hands before she could apply the spell she had in mind.

"Nobody's saying you're not good enough but you shouldn't waste your strength," said Fred. "And you're on your own. I don't think any of the others could have done it on their own either, not even Willow. That's why Tara has gone to fetch everybody back, remember. She didn't think just you and her were enough to face what might be coming at us."

"Tara! Oh yeah," scoffed Amy. "And she didn't have any other reason for going to get Willow back did she?"

"Listen!" interrupted Lorne. "Can anybody else hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Gunn.

"That sort of grinding sound," said Lorne. "It seems to be coming from below."

"Below? You don't mean below as in the depths of hell below?" asked Fred.

"No, I mean below as in the basement where the Stargate is set up below," replied Lorne.

Everybody dashed out of the room and down the stairs to the basement.

Gunn reached the bottom of the stairs first to find that nothing visible was happening. The SG security team were as usual watching the Gate. The Gate was still shut down and apparently dormant and there were no interlopers messing around in the basement. As far as they could tell nothing had been disturbed.

"Can you still hear it?" Gunn asked Lorne.

"You mean you can't?" replied Lorne. "It's a lot louder down here."

Gunn looked at the others but Fred and Amy both shook their heads indicating that they too could hear nothing.

Gunn knelt down and put his ear to the ground. At last he was able to hear something. "There's definitely something happening down there," he said. "It doesn't sound good. It sounds like some sort of machinery is being used."

"This town has all sorts of underground tunnels and caverns beneath it," said Amy. "I don't think anybody has ever explored them all. Well maybe the vampires have but nobody else has lived to tell about it."

"Maybe all these quakes have shaken something loose down there," suggested Fred.

"That doesn't sound good," said Lorne. "Didn't Gandalf say something like that just before all those orcs and that big monster appeared?"

"Maybe somebody is trying another way to get to the Stargate," suggested Gunn, his ear still to the ground.

"You think somebody is trying to tunnel in?" asked Fred.

"Sure sounds like it," said Gunn. "Either that or you've got a big mole problem in this town."

"Well we've had everything else," said Amy. "If any town is going to have giant moles it'll be Sunnydale."

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"So this must mean Dawn has travelled into the past," said Angel. "That must be good news. It means she hasn't simply ceased to exist."

"I think she's sending us a message from the past," said Buffy. "That's why the picture shows her wearing the necklace and the ring. She knows you were doing research Giles. So she must have hoped you'd get to see this book."

"So what's the message? I'm in the past, come and get me?" suggested Connor. "How do we do that? Does it say when and where in the past?"

"If she went into the past she might have found out more about the Key," said Daniel. "She might have arranged for this book to include the information that we need to deal with the Goa'uld."

"We should have thought of something like that when we were in the past," said Paige. "We could have left a message for the future just in case we didn't make it back."

"We can't think of everything," said Prue, annoyed with herself that she hadn't thought of doing something like that. "It's not like there's a user manual for time travellers."

"Perhaps we should write one," said Phoebe.

"You mean something like Time Travel for Dummies," suggested Piper.

"There nothing in that book I couldn't tell you anyway," said Lissie interrupting the cross chat amongst the sisters. "For one thing there's no question of there being two Keys or the same Key twice. There's only ever one Key. I didn't bring the Key with me from the past. It doesn't work like that. The Key's here and the Key's there. As the Keeper I know how to access it whether I'm there or I'm here."

"So you're saying when Dawn went into the past she didn't take the Key with her," said Buffy. "So she's not the Key any more, she's separate."

"She was never the Key," said Lissie. "She couldn't have been. At the most she could only have been an aspect of it or somebody linked to it like a Keeper, like me. A lot of the Keepers look like me, not just your Dawn. She was just the conduit that could be used to access the power of the eternal Key."

"Sort of like the Key to the Key you mean," said Buffy.

"But now she's not linked to it any more," said Angel. "That's what that book is telling us: 'The Last Keeper after she was no longer linked to the Key.' Going back in time has broken her link to the Key. She must have met people in the past who told her more about it."

"So we can use the Key now to get rid of the Goa'uld without any risk to Dawn," said Daniel.

"Not so fast," said Buffy. "How exactly do you suggest I get my sister back? That's got to be the first item on the list of what we're going to do."

"Well we've got to do something soon otherwise the Goa'uld will obliterate all life on this planet," said Phoebe. "The vision I had with Drusilla was quite clear about that."

"But you said Dawn was part of the solution to that so we've got to get her back first," said Buffy.

"Um, that was before I met Lissie," said Phoebe with a grimace. "It might have been Lissie who I saw in the vision. I can't be sure."

Over at the back of the room Xander and Faith had begun a quiet conversation of their own:

"Do you think Dawn's still here?" asked Xander.

"What do you mean?" asked Faith. "Don't you think she really went into the past?"

"Not that no. I mean if Dawn's only linked to the Key, not the Key itself, then where did she come from? Who was she?" asked Xander. "Could Lissie be Dawn before she became Dawn if you see what I mean?"

"Well they look the same apart from their age," said Faith.

"Lissie looks about the age Dawn was when she first appeared in Sunnydale. Really appeared that is, not the whole false memory business," said Xander.

"They're both linked to the Key and we know time travel's a possibility," said Faith. "But if they are the same what difference does it make?"

"Well if they are the same then maybe Dawn will get her memories back one day, her real memories," said Xander. "I think she'd be happy to know the truth. It really upset her when she found out she'd just been created by a magic spell."

"I wonder what Buffy would think of that," said Faith. "Anyway it doesn't do anything to solve our problems here and now," said Faith.

"I guess not," agree Xander. "But we have to make sure nothing happens to Lissie."

"Do we?" asked Faith. "If she's going to become Dawn then something's got to happen to her otherwise everything will unravel."


	55. Hellfire?

**Chapter Fifty Five: Hellfire?**

Willow led the way out of the cave and down the broken path to the bottom of the cliff. She remained on alert all the way but in the hours since they had ascended to the cave above, the creatures that had been stalking them seemed to have departed, presumably in search of other prey. Only a couple of the more agile ape-like demons had got as far as the cave entrance and Kennedy had made short work of them with her sword.

Eve came down the cliff path immediately behind Willow and after her came Wesley carrying the still unconscious Tara. Kennedy was once again acting as rearguard, her drawn sword in her hand.

Tara had still not woken up. Even when Tara did wake up Willow did not want her to exhaust herself again by orbing everybody back to Kallistien, not unless there was no alternative. So Willow had seen no point in remaining in the cave any longer waiting for Tara to regain consciousness. She and everybody else would be a lot safer back on the other side of the Hellmouth.

Besides, Willow didn't want to leave the Hellmouth open any longer than she had to. There was still the question of what was happening to the spaceships and the more general question of the threat from the Goa'uld to deal with.

Willow continued in the lead around the base of the cliff and arrived at the point where she was sure Kennedy had killed the bear like monster. But there was no sign of it. Probably something has already eaten it she thought. She looked around but could still see no immediate threats. We'd better keep moving before anything else turns up.

Willow set off into the jungle, going down the hill back the way they had come. The vegetation was just as soggy and the atmosphere was just as hot and humid as before. Progress was therefore slow and exhausting as they struggled through the mud. They tried to avoid the worst of the ground but Willow did not want to use any more magic until she really had to. She remained alert to deal with any dangers and made sure that Wesley with Tara remained close behind her.

At the bottom of the slope Willow stopped and looked around. "Looks like the jungle has already covered up any trace of our journey up here," she said. "I don't want to risk getting lost. How exactly did you find your way to the Hellmouth again?"

Willow's question was directed to Eve. Why take chances if you don't have to thought Willow. On the way in Willow had been aware of the thread which linked her to Tara. She no longer had that as a back up guide on the way back. She would have to use magic if there was no other way but it would be simpler if Eve just did what she had done before. There was also the added advantage that Eve would be in front where Willow could keep an eye on her.

"Follow me," said Eve without hesitation. She now had her compass in her hand and kept glancing at it as she led the way deeper into the thick alien undergrowth. The others followed.

After fighting their way through the jungle for a while Wesley called for a halt to rest. He had spotted a suitable clear, reasonably dry area of ground where he put Tara down. Wesley carefully placed Tara, still sleeping, with her back up against a tree.

"I'll scout ahead a bit," said Kennedy moving to the front of the group.

"No!" said Willow quickly grabbing the slayer's arm before she could disappear. "We stick together. We don't want to lose anybody in this jungle. Once you're out of sight we might never see you again. Everybody stay together. If anything suddenly jumps out of that jungle we're gonna need you."

Kennedy was confident of not getting lost. She never seemed to lose her sense of direction and had always assumed it was part of being a slayer. But she saw no reason to argue with Willow, not when there was another way to see what might be waiting for them up ahead.

So Kennedy shrugged but said nothing. She followed Willow's orders to the extent that she did not disappear into the undergrowth. But with a sudden leap she sprang upwards high onto the trunk of the largest nearby tree and quickly continued upwards to where she could survey the surrounding area.

Willow watched the slayer disappear into the branches above and then turned to look at the sleeping Tara and smiled. How long would she remain asleep? She had already tried the Sleeping Beauty method to wake her up but Tara remained asleep, although once more with a slight smile on her face. Willow was reluctant to try anything else since she reasoned that Tara needed the rest. She would surely wake up when she was good and ready.

And then it happened. With Willow still focused on Tara's face the Whitelighter opened her eyes and looked straight at Willow. Willow immediately dropped to her knees beside her partner.

"Hey, had a nice rest sweetie?" asked Willow stroking the hair away from Tara's forehead. "Are you alright?"

"I think so," said Tara quietly. "I just had the most wonderful dream. You found me lying in a cave and ..."

"There's something happening up ahead," called Kennedy from her perch high above. "Wow!"

Kennedy rapidly dropped down out of the tree. "It's coming this way. It's like a flood, a black flood."

"Everybody up into the trees," said Wesley. "The higher the better."

Willow helped Tara to her feet. Eve had begun to climb but Kennedy and Wesley looked at Willow and Tara ready to help if necessary.

"You guys get up in the tree!" ordered Willow. "I'll take care of Tara."

As she spoke Willow saw and smelt a dirty, fetid black liquid start to flow out of the trees towards them. The start of the coming flood. She put her arms around Tara, muttered a few words and the two of them floated up into the air.

The flood, which had started as a trickle, quickly became a torrent. Wesley and Kennedy had to scramble quickly up the tree after Eve to stay above it. What they didn't know was whether the tree would be higher than the flood and whether the flood would wash away the tree. In both respects however it seemed that they were lucky.

As the main rush of fluid ended, the group found themselves marooned on the topmost branches of one of the tallest trees in the area. As they looked out over the drowned jungle all they could see were the tops of the taller trees poking through the black expanse. Back the way they had come the cliff with the cave had now become a vast black waterfall.

We left just in time thought Willow. But is this some sort of natural phenomenon or is somebody using this stuff to try to kill us or trap us down here?

"Is that it?" asked Kennedy. "Or is it going to get higher than this? Anybody any idea what this stuff is and where it comes from?"

"This is a very different sort of world to the one we're used to," said Wesley. "This might be a normal occurrence in these parts."

"Won't this stuff have drowned all the creatures that live in the forest?" asked Eve.

"We don't know that," replied Wesley. "They might be able to live in it. They might thrive on it."

"Well whatever it is it smells foul," said Kennedy. "And it doesn't look like something you'd want to drink."

"We're also out of food," said Eve. "We just had a little that Tara had with her and that's all gone now. We can't stay here long."

"What do we do next? This stuff might have flooded the entrance to the Hellmouth," said Kennedy. "Do we wait for it to go away? That might be a long time and I don't fancy swimming in it. Would you be able to fly us over it?"

Kennedy had addressed her questions to Willow who had been talking quietly to Tara where they had landed on one of the highest branches. Kennedy was prepared to accept Willow as leader but was reluctant to take orders from Wesley. Wesley was a Watcher but in Kennedy's opinion Watchers were there to give advice, not to take the lead.

"I could fly a little way but only with one of you at a time and I think we should stay together," said Willow. "I certainly don't recommend swimming in it. It smells awful. I think it's got a lot of sulphur in it."

"Not just sulphur," said Wesley. "This looks something like hot tar. You can feel the heat coming up from it. And that raises a very important point. It might be flammable."

"This is a hell dimension," said Tara, speaking up for the first time. "That usually means fire and brimstone. We need to leave here soon because this stuff is likely to catch fire."

No sooner had Tara spoken then there was a distant boom. Everybody looked in that direction. They could now see a great column of smoke and ash rising up into the sky from somewhere over the horizon.

"And that volcano, if that is what it is, is just the sort of thing to set fire to all this," said Wesley. "This whole area will be alight in a few minutes."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Daniel Jackson returned to the library to rejoin the debate over what to do next. He had left the room to find the SG communications team that was stationed elsewhere in the building.

"I've spoken to Jack and the good news is we've got a little more time," he said after walking through the door. "They've been able to take out all of the missiles so far launched by the Goa'uld fleet. But the Goa'uld will likely launch a lot more before long."

Jack and his crew had also been able to destroy the small Goa'uld spaceships that had taken off from one of the moons. Jack had told Daniel not to mention this to the others but he had not explained why.

"The bad news is that's just about the last thing they'll be able to do up there," continued Daniel. "They're organising the evacuation of the ship. It'll soon be destroyed by the self destruct system just before it enters the atmosphere. Teal'c has taken off again in his shuttle. The shuttles are pretty well all we've got up there now but they won't be able to take out a major missile strike by Apophis."

"Right then, we'd better get on and use the Key to defend the planet from the Goa'uld and drive them away, just like we did when we were in the past," said Prue looking pointedly at Buffy.

"They're right," said Giles, forestalling yet another objection from Buffy. "Dawn would want us to. The Goa'uld might be firing off more missiles even as we speak. We can't risk the lives of everybody on the planet."

"Including everybody in this room," added Daniel.

"OK, go ahead then," said Buffy. "But before you do anything, before any of you do anything, I want your agreement to do whatever it takes to bring Dawn back. Magic, Stargates, time travel, whatever it takes. As soon as you've done this and this world is safe, we get Dawn back. I want everybody to promise."

"We'll all do whatever we can, provided it doesn't involve dark magic," said Prue quietly. The others nodded and murmured agreement.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I don't know what it was but I put three bullets in it and it still kept coming," said agent Jackman. It didn't even slow down."

"But you're still here," said Colonel Maybourne. "What happened next? Where did it go?"

"I don't know," said the agent. "The thing hit me and knocked me clear across the cave. That's when my lights went out."

"You don't seriously mean this thing had fangs like a vampire?" asked Major Grant referring to the description of the creature that Jackman had given. She looked suspiciously at the agent. "Are you sure you weren't dozing off? When you're like that a dream can seem pretty real."

"Oh yeah, so what about my face and this big bump on the back of my head?" asked the agent leaning forward to show off his injury. "Did I dream that? And what's happened to Zelinski? I don't see him around any more."

"More to the point why are you still alive?" asked Colonel Maybourne. "If that thing wanted to kill and you couldn't stop it why didn't it finish the job? And where did all this dust come from?"

"Your other agent's fine," said a voice from behind them. "Probably. But I expect he's still running. Vampires can be pretty frightening, even if you've met them before."

"And just who the hell are you?" asked Maybourne addressing the tall, well dressed African American man who had just entered the cave. As he spoke he put his hand on his holstered gun. "And how did you get past the guards out there?"

"I'm Wood, Robin Wood," said the man extending his hand to Maybourne. Maybourne ignored it so Wood put it down without fuss. "I'm the principal of the local High School. I'm afraid I didn't see any guards. I expect they've all gone as well."

"Let's just suppose for a moment I believe all this vampire nonsense," said Maybourne. His experiences with Lilah meant that he did believe but he didn't want to admit that in front of the others. "What exactly are you doing here and what've you got to do with vampires?"

"Like I said, I'm the High School Principal. I was leading a group of students in the woods when we saw evidence of vampire activity in this area," said Wood.

"Evidence?" asked Major Grant. "What evidence?"

"A dead body I'm afraid," said Wood. "One of your people I think. The fang marks are unmistakable." Wood decided not to mention that he had decapitated the body to make sure it did not rise again as a vampire.

"So you and your students decided to come looking for the vampires," said Maybourne sceptically. "Very brave of you. Is dealing with vampires part of the curriculum at Sunnydale High?"

"No, but maybe it should be. We've had vampires in Sunnydale for a long time," replied Wood. "We know how to deal with them. There might be a group of them in this area but there might just be just the one vampire." A vampire who was now dust thought Wood but he decided not to mention that either since he wanted to spook the NID unit right away from the area.

Wood had already decided not to be as forthcoming as he could have been. He did not explain that his 'students' were a group of potential slayers with experience in dealing with vampires. Nor did he explain that he was in the area to look into what was causing the burrowing noises below the Slayer HQ.

"So how do we know you're not a vampire?" asked agent Jackman aggressively. "That other thing looked quite normal until just before he attacked me."

"Well I have a heartbeat and I'm wearing a cross," said Wood pulling out the chain that he wore around his neck. "That means I can't be a vampire. And I can prove I am who I say I am." Wood pulled out his ID card and showed it to Maybourne. Maybourne looked at it and handed it back.

"OK, let's accept you are who you say you are. Where are the police? Why didn't you call the authorities? What are you up to?" asked Maybourne.

"I'm afraid the police are not well equipped to deal with vampires, any more than you are," said Wood. "As for what I'm up to, this is Sunnydale. This is where I live and work. I don't think you people are from around here so I think it's more to the point if I ask what exactly are you up to?"

"That's none of your concern," said Maybourne. "All you need to know is we're here on government business, we're armed and there are more of us."

"Not any more there aren't," said a voice from behind them. Maybourne and the other two NID people turned around to find that the voice had come from one of a group of four young women who had quietly entered the cave behind them.

"All your weapons are no use against a vampire as you've just found out. I'm afraid all your other people have run away," she said. "You three are the last ones left. Oh and somebody has smashed up that drilling machine you were using."

Vi added the last comment without mentioning that it was the potentials who had just had a grand old time smashing up the machinery.

The drilling machine! They know it was a drilling machine thought Maybourne. I bet that's why they're here. But how did they know we were operating it? It was meant to be so quiet that nobody in the house would be able to hear it until it was too late. Magic again? More magical defences or a rather more mundane security leak? Either way Maybourne realised that his current operation to snatch the Sunnydale Stargate was now over.

The infuriating thing for Maybourne was he had no grounds to arrest the people who were responsible for messing things up. He thought about taking Wood in for questioning but quickly changed his mind. He was obviously working with the other Sunnydale people and there would be a big stink if the local High School Principal disappeared or was roughed up.

OK thought Maybourne. That didn't work. But it was always a long shot anyway. But I'm not giving up. Sooner or later the NID will get control of its own Stargate.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well at least Daniel's alright," said Jack. "For the moment anyway."

Jack was walking along the corridor with Sam towards the transportation point. They would be the last two to evacuate the ship before the self destruct took effect.

"Two minutes to self-destruct!" warned the computer voice as they walked along the corridor.

"Until the next salvo of missiles comes in from Apophis's fleet you mean sir," said Sam. "He's as much in the firing line down there in the city as everybody else."

"Yeah, but he sounded optimistic," said Jack. "He didn't go into details but he did say the witches had found out how the Goa'uld had been sent packing the last time. It's all to do with magic and he thinks it's something they the witches will be able to do again. I told him to tell them to hurry up and get on with it."

"Just so long as it only affects the Goa'uld and their ships," said Sam. "We don't want it to get rid of us as well. No news from Willow and the others sir?" asked Sam.

"Two minutes to self-destruct!" warned the computer voice again.

"Nope," said Jack. "Seems this force is centred on that hotel we were staying in. She and some of the others have gone there to see if they can do anything about it. They haven't reported back yet."

"Where to sir?" asked Sam as she reached the controls. "Do you want to go where we sent the others or do you want to go down to the city?"

The people on the spaceship, SG personnel and witches alike, had been evacuated to as far away from the capital city as possible. The city was in line to be the most dangerous place on the planet since it was the location of the mysterious force that was pulling down the ship as well as the target of the Goa'uld missiles.

"You know as well as I do we've got to go to the city," said Jack. "We can't do any good on the other side of the planet. Put us down as close to where that force is centred as you can."

"Two minutes to self-destruct!" warned the computer voice as the two members of SG-1 arrived at the teleportation point.

"Wait a minute," said Jack. "That clock sounds as if it's stopped. It keeps saying it's two minutes to self-destruct. Has something gone wrong? Did the witches lift their protection spells before they left?"

"Yes they did," said Sam. "It's not that. Not unless they made a mistake."

"So is it the just the voice that's gone wrong or has the countdown really stopped?"

"I'll check," said Sam and darted away down the corridor.

"Sam, there's no time, you can't..." began Jack. But Sam had gone, probably deliberately running off before Jack could order her not to.

"Hellfire!" said Jack and rushed after her.

"Two minutes to self-destruct!" warned the computer voice again to the empty corridor.


	56. Down Below and Up Above

**Chapter Fifty Six: Down Below and Up Above**

Back in the basement of the hotel powerful magics were being used:

"I think you've stopped it," said Gwen. "Either that or it's stopped of its own accord. Either way I don't think it's getting any higher. But can you send it back down to where it came from?"

Cordelia and Anya had carried out a spell to try to drive the black liquid down the hole through the Hellmouth and back into the Hell Dimension. Without a spell book handy they had used a generic repulsion spell chant but so far all of their efforts had failed to reverse what was happening. As Gwen had pointed out they had finally stopped the further flooding of the hotel cellar. Either that or the black stuff had finally stopped pouring up out of the Hellmouth for some other reason.

At present the three women were half way up the cellar steps. They had retreated step by step as the black tide advanced. It was now lapping at their feet having flooded the whole cellar area below them. Cordelia and Anya had linked their hands and were concentrating on preventing any further encroachment.

"Get help!" ordered Cordelia with a brief glance at Gwen. "We need more magic users and a good spell book. Go and find some friendly local witches, the Halliwells or somebody who can do magic. We can't keep this up for ever. We need more magic power."

"I might be able to help," said Gwen. "Perhaps if I tried to..." began Gwen.

"Don't use your lightning, whatever you do," said Anya. "I think I know what this stuff is. It's what fuels the Fires of Hell. If something sets it alight nothing will put it out. And when it really gets going that's when the fire demons turn up. You don't want to face them. They feed by pulling their victims into the fire with them."

"If we'd had this stuff back in Sunnydale the oil companies would have been all over us," said Cordelia. "They'd be looking for ways to get more of it."

"I think I'd prefer the fire demons," said Gwen.

"It's already well alight down below," said a voice from behind them from further up the steps. It was Willow. "We've got to get this stuff out of here before the fire arrives."

Willow came down the steps behind Cordelia, Anya and Gwen. Tara came with her holding her hand. Behind them were Wesley, Eve and Kennedy. Anya gave Tara a brief smile to welcome her back but then quickly returned her attention to the black flood spread out below them.

"With Willow's help I was strong enough to orb everybody out of there," said Tara. "We had to get out quickly and we couldn't exactly swim through this stuff. It's flooded everything for miles around in the hell dimension. It's like a great black sea down there."

"If you two have been able to hold it back from coming any further into this world the four of us working together should be strong enough to drive it back to where it came from," said Willow.

"So long as nothing else turns up to interfere with what you're trying to do," said Wesley.

"Well welcome back Wesley!" said Cordelia. "Do you have something in mind? Or are you just back and being your usual pessimistic self?"

"Well somebody or something arranged for all this to happen," said Wesley. "I'm just saying we should watch out in case they're still about and try to stop us."

"There's something else to watch out for as well. Just before Tara orbed us away I thought I saw things swimming in this muck," said Kennedy. "Large things with big teeth."

"Sounds like the fire demons," said Anya. "I expect they're the ones who set it all loose in the first place."

"Well if anything jumps out at us while we're doing the magic then you guys had better take care of it," said Willow looking at Kennedy and Gwen. Kennedy said nothing more but nodded, smiled, drew her sword and stood ready.

Willow turned back to Tara and smiled. "Ready to do some magic together?"

Tara smiled back. "Oh yes, I'd like nothing better..." began Tara. But she broke off from what she was saying as if she was listening to something. "Oh dear," she added. She released her hold on Willow's hand and promptly disappeared in an orb.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dawn arrived back at her room, shut the door behind her and sat down on the bed to think. The room was as plain as when she had first seen it but it wasn't a prison cell. There was no lock or bolt on the door. Everybody in the community had a simple room just like it. Only the married couples had more space and of course a larger bed.

She would have thought of the room as some sort of monastic cell but she very definitely wasn't in a monastery. She was in a community which had chosen to isolate itself to a certain extent from those living outside but there were men and women living there, some together and some apart and there were plenty of children of all ages.

The community described themselves as the Searchers After Truth. Like a monastery they aimed to be as self sufficient as possible by working the land, making their own clothes and trading locally for whatever else they needed. From what Dawn could gather the 'Search' was mainly concerned with the occult, magic and prophecy. She wondered whether these people were somehow connected to the Kallistien witches but they did not call themselves witches and claimed to know of nobody who did.

Dawn had spent most of her time since arriving, in the company of the two people she had first met. The man Eiric and the woman Mooren. They had at first thought her to be a friend of theirs named Lisabet and they still sometimes got her name wrong.

Lisabet had just succeeded to the post of Keeper of the Key following the death of her mother. There was an induction ceremony connected with the succession. Eiric and Mooren had been ready to conduct Lisabet to the ceremony when they had arrived at the door of the room. It seemed that somehow Dawn had taken the place of Lisabet who looked just like her apart from being a few years younger. Lisabet was now nowhere to be found.

Since there was clearly no chance of impersonating Lisabet, even if Dawn had thought of a reason for doing so, she had told the others all about who she was and what had happened to her as far as she knew.

A few things had been established. Firstly although the Key might be the same Key which had been turned into Dawn back on Earth she could not be sure. Since Dawn resembled Lisabet so closely they thought she was some sort of relative of the Keeper or perhaps another Keeper or potential Keeper herself.

Dawn had established that she was still on the world of Kallistien although nobody had ever heard of the Goa'uld or the Stargate and they didn't know anything about spaceships or other modern technology. Dawn had concluded that she was either in the far future or the distant past, probably the past.

So why was she here? How did she get here and how could she get back home or at least get back to the Kallistien of her own time? Everybody back there must be frantic she thought. Although if this was time travel perhaps she could somehow return to the moment when she left so maybe nobody would miss her after all. But before she did that she had to work out how to return and nobody seemed to have any idea of how she could do that.

Dawn presumed that the answers to her questions were all linked to each other and to the Key. She therefore needed to know more about the Key. The trouble was it was the Keepers who knew most about the Key and they generally didn't tell much of what they knew to anybody except their designated heir. Lisabet's mother would have told her what she needed to know but that didn't help Dawn at all because Lisabet wasn't there and her mother had died.

Mooren had sent a message to the people she called the Magisters and the Matres. If anybody could help it would be them she insisted. They were very knowledgeable about all sorts of things, especially magic since they were the Guardians of the Secrets of the Tau'ri, whatever that meant.

The Chief Magister had sent a reply, by what means Dawn didn't know, that he would be arriving the following day. At the moment Dawn was wondering if it would be a good idea to wait for this man to arrive or whether there was anything she could try in the meantime.

Could she trust this Chief? Could she trust any of these people? They naturally wanted to get their Lisabet back. They might also want to use the Key for whatever it was the Key was normally used for. Everybody had been very vague about that. But Dawn certainly didn't want to be turned back into a glowy, green ball of energy so she didn't tell them she was the Key, or a Key.

At that moment there was a loud bang. It seemed to have come from up in the sky. Thunder and lightning? Dawn didn't rush to the window since it was too high to see out, but the sun was shining outside and it was rather cool. Not at all like thundery weather.

Dawn decided to go outside and have a look to see what was happening but before she could make a move the door was opened and Mooren rushed into the room.

"Come outside and look," she said. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Dawn followed the excited Mooren out of the room, along the corridor and into the rear garden. A lot of people had already crowded outside to get a clear look of what was happening up in the sky. Dawn join them in staring upwards at the spectacle above.

Dawn was disappointed to realise that the excitement was nothing more than a number of high altitude contrails crossing the sky. As Dawn looked up she could see that each trail was being extended off in what she thought was an approximately south-west direction. A moment later she discovered the reason for the explosion as a much lower flying machine passed above them followed by a sonic boom.

This must be all new to them thought Dawn. She turned to Mooren: "You've never seen aircraft before?" she asked.

"Aircraft?" asked Mooren. "What do you mean? What are aircraft? Are they what you call those lines in the sky?"

"Aircraft are flying machines," said Dawn. "Sort of like erm, carriages in the sky, but without horses to pull them. They fly like birds, well not exactly like birds but they fly with people inside. They sometimes leave trails in the sky like that when they're high up. It's just a sort of cloud."

Mooren shook her head, her attention once more focused on the sky above. "These aircraft must be much faster than dragons," she said. "Where do they come from and what are they doing up there?"

"You don't know?" asked Dawn. "Eh yes, if you don't know what they are you wouldn't would you?" As she spoke Dawn suddenly began to worry. Was she seeing the arrival of the Goa'uld? And if so which arrival? And should she say anything? For the first time since her arrival Dawn had the realisation that perhaps she should try to avoid changing the time line.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The lights of two arriving Whitelighters appeared in the main lounge of the Sunnydale Slayer HQ. They cleared to reveal Leo and Jenny. They had finally returned from their meeting with the Elders and the other Whitelighters. They looked around but found that the room was empty.

"Somebody will be down in the basement keeping an eye on the Gate," said Leo. "They might all be down there. Let's try there first."

"I've been thinking about what's happening," said Jenny who made no move to leave the room. "When I first became a Whitelighter I thought the Elders knew everything. It's frightening to find out there's so much they don't know. Especially when there's so much at stake."

"Well if they knew everything they wouldn't be Elders, they'd be somewhat higher up on the ladder don't you think?" asked Leo.

"I suppose," replied Jenny. "But don't you think they're doing a lot of guessing about all this? And they don't seem to be getting any support from anywhere else, from anybody who is higher up the ladder. Do you think the other side might be suckering them? This all feels wrong somehow."

"There are always things the Elders can't tell us. You know that. They might be guessing but I don't think so and if they are then it's informed guesswork," said Leo. "Anyway you heard them. The last word has to be with the mortals. All we can do is explain what we think and what the Elders think. The rest is up to them. It's up to them to exercise their free will."

The question is do we tell them it's all doubts and guesswork thought Jenny. Won't that just make things harder for them? But if we don't tell them then aren't we just manipulating them to get them to do what we want? What sort of free will is that?

"I know what the problem is sir. I've found out why the countdown stopped," said Sam looking up from where she was working. "It's this blue tube here. When it..."

"Let's leave out the technicalities for now Major," said Jack. "We don't have the time and I won't understand them anyway. Just tell me you can fix it."

"Yes sir. Well I can fix it to start the self-destruct again," said Sam. "That's pretty straightforward. But the trouble is I can't reset it. When it begins again it'll be counting down from two minutes."

"Which is a problem since we've got to get back to the teleportation point before everything blows up," said Jack. And I think it's a lot more than two minutes away from where we are now he added to himself, even running flat out.

"Exactly," said Sam. "I didn't time it but even running at full speed it'll be very tight getting back there to the teleportation point before everything comes apart."

"Now one of those witches would come in handy right about now," said Jack. "Pity we can't just ring them up. Could you restart the countdown by remote control from somewhere else on the ship like the transportation point? Could you rig something up?"

"I could do that ten different ways if I just had the time," said Sam. "But I don't. If this ship isn't in pieces in the next few minutes it'll still be together when it hits the city. That'll mean the city or a large part of it will be nothing but a smoking hole. The only way to stop a disaster down on the planet is to restart the self-destruct right now and allow the ship to break up completely when it hits the atmosphere."

"OK, show me how to reset it," said Jack. "And don't use any big words."

"It'll be simpler if I do it sir, it'll save time if you let me..." began Sam, only to be interrupted by Jack.

"That's an order Major," said Jack. "No argument. We don't have time for that. You will now show me how to restart the countdown. You will then go to the teleportation point as quickly as you can. Signal me when you get there because that's when I'll restart the countdown. As soon as you've spoken to me you will teleport down to the planet. That's another order by the way Major."

"Yes sir," said Sam looking Jack straight in the eye. She could see that arguing the point would be a waste of time.

"And don't worry, I can move faster than you," said Jack. "Unless you've become one of those slayers without telling me."

"No, not a slayer," muttered Sam. "But I can move a lot faster than..."

"This isn't a debate Major," said Jack. "Let's get on with it."

Sam carefully explained to Jack exactly what he had to do, at the same time calculating everything that could be done to improve Jack's chances to make it to the transportation point in time before the ship blew up.

"OK, I've got it," said Jack. "Now get out of here, scoot."

Sam thought briefly about giving Jack a quick hug then thought better of it. It would be like saying she didn't think he'd make it and anyway they really didn't have the time for an emotional farewell.

"I'm going to dog open all the doors on the way," she said. "You'll be able to take it at a flat out run. Just don't break your neck when you drop down to the next deck, uh sir."

Jack said no more but quietly nodded. Sam quickly made her way down to the transportation point, using her gun to destroy the door controls in an open position at every doorway on route. Finally she arrived at the nearest transportation point, took a deep breath and signalled to Jack that she was there.

Although she would be disobeying orders Sam had no intention of transporting down to the planet straight away. She intended staying until the last possible moment with her hands on the transportation controls. All Jack would have to do when he arrived would be to get inside the rings. Sam would do everything else. She'd deal with any fall out from disobeying Jack's order when they were both safely down on the planet.

The problem was Sam could see no way that Jack would be able to make it. The distance was just too great. An Olympic athlete couldn't do it. But she knew Jack was going to try. Jack was going to die trying. That's the sort of man he was.

"One minute to self destruct!" said the Computer voice startling Sam out of her dark thoughts. One minute gone already she thought. Come on Jack, you can do it! If anybody could do it Jack would find a way.

And Jack was trying. He was currently at full speed running along the upper corridor on the deck above Sam. But he had already reached the same conclusion as Sam. There was no way he could make it. But hey, he had to try. He might just get lucky. Maybe the computer clock was a little out. Maybe the self destruct wouldn't kick in everywhere at once. Maybe it would hit the other side of the ship first. Maybe...

"TEN, NINE, EIGHT..." counted the computer.

Jack didn't slow down but he hadn't yet reached the lower deck. It wasn't even going to be close.

"THREE, TWO, ONE..."

Sam teleported down to the planet. Jack hadn't even been in sight. Sam knew she wouldn't have been able to operate the switch had she seen Jack pounding towards her. She wouldn't have been able to watch him as she transported herself to safety. Had Jack known that? Had he stayed on the deck above for that very reason? Don't be silly she told herself. There was no way he could have reached that last corridor in time.

Sam realised that she had been standing waiting beside the transport arrival point for several minutes now. Without giving it any thought she realised she had still expected Jack to teleport down after her. Some sort of miracle, some sort of typical Jack miracle would save him and he would make it. But as Sam continued to wait, nothing happened. Nobody appeared. It looked like Jack hadn't made it.


	57. Timing It

**Chapter Fifty Seven: Timing It**

With a final gurgle, the last of the black liquid was forced down through the Hellmouth and back into the Hell Dimension. Willow, Cordelia and Anya unclasped their hands and stepped away from the rim of the Hellmouth. They relaxed their concentration a little but remained ready to deal without anything else that might come through from the Hell Dimension below.

They didn't have long to wait. Almost immediately a thin line of smoke began to rise up out of the hole in front of them. The thin line quickly became a considerable column of smoke and began filling the room.

"Unless we can put out the fire down below we've got to block off this smoke," said Wesley.

"You think?" said Kennedy sarcastically through the hand that she was now holding over her face.

Willow didn't wait to combine with Cordelia and Anya. She stepped forward to the edge of the hole leading to the Hellmouth and, with both hands pointing down into the hole, spoke a word of power: "Blow!" Everybody was briefly buffeted by a terrific gust of wind as a column of air was driven downwards. That seemed to do the trick because after that no more smoke came up from below.

But although there was no more smoke and no more black liquid, things were not exactly the way they had been before. The retreat of the liquid had left behind a foul smelling residue behind which coated the floor and walls of the cellar and everything else the liquid had touched.

"The next thing we've got to do is get rid of this residue," said Wesley looking around. "One spark down here and this whole place will go up in flames."

"The next thing we've got to do?" asked Anya. "I haven't seen you do anything up to now."

"Wesley's not a witch, you know that," said Cordelia quickly to head off an argument. When did I become the peacemaker she thought? "But the next thing we've got to do is block off that Hellmouth and stop that stuff or anything else from coming back up. No point in doing a clean up until we've done that."

"We can't block it off permanently," said Willow. "The Hellmouth might be our only way to get home. We might have to return along the route taken by Tara to get here. She thinks the Stargates at least are going to remain off line for the time being and it might not be possible to get home using magic."

"But all the time this Hellmouth's open it's pulling down those spaceships," said Kennedy. "We've got to shut it down now otherwise this whole city might be destroyed. We can't afford to have even one of those ships come down on top of us."

"Tara didn't have time to tell me everything that's going on but she said we mustn't shut down the Hellmouth, not yet," said Willow. "If we do we'll be doing just what Lilah and Wolfram and Hart want us to do."

"Can't you do something about those spaceships without actually shutting down the Hellmouth?" asked Gwen. "I mean if it's not the actual Hellmouth itself that's causing the trouble but something else can't you tackle the something else, whatever it is?"

"Well Cordy said she could feel some sort of force coming up out of the Hellmouth," said Anya. "Couldn't we block that off or maybe track it back to its source?" she added looking at Cordelia.

"It's coming straight up out of the Hellmouth," said Cordelia. "So if we track it we've got to go down inside. Do we want to do that without a Whitelighter to orb us out again afterwards? We don't want to find ourselves swimming in that black stuff down there."

"No we don't," said Willow. "We'll just have to do the next best thing, block off the Hellmouth temporarily. Or at least stop anything or any force from coming out of it."

As she spoke Willow's thoughts turned once more to Tara. Where are you now? What new crisis have you had to go deal with? It must have been urgent since you didn't explain what it was about before you went. Why didn't you take me with you? Was it because I've got to stay here and guard this Hellmouth? At the back of her mind Willow was hoping that Tara had not been drawn all the way back to Earth once again, before she had the chance to explain everything.

"And how exactly do we block it off temporarily?" asked Anya interrupting Willow's musing.

"No idea," said Willow. "Any suggestions will be gratefully received."

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As Fred entered the main lounge of the Slayer HQ in Sunnydale she saw that the two Whitelighters were present and were talking to each other.

"Hey! You're back," she said. "So what happened? And what happens next? Are we ready to go? Do we still have to do this? How much time have we got left?"

"We'd better get everybody in here, everybody who's in the building anyway," said Leo. "And then we'll explain what we know."

A few minutes later they had been joined by Amy and Lorne. Then Gunn and Captain Dietrich, the senior officer present from the SGC arrived from the basement, still busy discussing what the NID had been up to.

"So you think this Maybourne was doing his own thing," said Gunn. "Not just working for Wolfram and Hart?"

"I don't know anything about Wolfram and Hart," said Dietrich. "But the NID have been trying to get hold of a Stargate for a long time. They pulled a few tricks to try to get control of ours but SG-1 and the General stopped them. I doubt Maybourne and the NID would have given the Gate over to anybody else if they'd gotten their hands on it."

"Maybourne and the NID might be acting on their own but they might only think they are," said Gunn. "It wouldn't surprise me if Wolfram and Hart are back of the NID as well, whether Maybourne knows it or not. That would be just like them. Anywhere there's dirty doings there's a trail of slime leading back to them."

Gunn and Dietrich abruptly realised that the others were looking at them and waiting for them to finish. They took seats in the room and waited with the others to hear what Leo and Jenny had to say.

"The Whitelighters here are going to fill us in on the latest situation and then we've got to decide what we're going to do," said Fred. "Over to you," she added looking at Leo.

"OK, well as you know our bosses reached an agreement with the bosses of Wolfram and Hart to open up a Hellmouth," began Leo. "Although we didn't know it at the time the permanent shutting down of the Sunnydale Hellmouth caused a lot of stresses in the Multiverse and these bottled up forces are what's behind our problems. For example this recent rash of earthquakes and the shutting down of the Stargate network."

"I've been given a few details about this," said Dietrich. "And I just about understand what a Hellmouth is. But could you be more specific about what shutting it down has done? I would have thought shutting down something called a Hellmouth would be nothing but good news."

"Normally it would be," said Jenny. "Hellmouths have been opened and closed from time to time before and the usual rule is shut them down as soon as you can because leaving them open is pretty well always bad news. But this time something different seems to have happened."

"Could it be this other side are doing something to force us to reopen the Hellmouth? Does anybody know for sure exactly what's happening and what's causing it?" asked Fred.

"Well it seems to be pretty sure that what's happening is simply the result of closing down the old Hellmouth and not something staged by the other side," said Leo. "The elders tell me this has all been checked out."

"We've been told that we can rule out any deliberate action by the demon fraternity and their friends," replied Jenny. "But nobody is sure of exactly how things have played out, or at least nobody at any sort of level we are able to contact."

"Level?" puzzled Dietrich. "By that do you mean..."

"Don't ask," said Gunn shaking his head. "Believe me it's better not to ask. Otherwise we'll be here all night arguing about nothing else."

"Anyway what seems to have happened this time is analogous to bottling up an active volcano, but on a much larger scale," continued Jenny. "The stresses have caused phase shifts between different worlds and different dimensions. This has severely disrupted communications between and movement to and from different worlds and universes."

"So that's why the Gates don't work at the moment," said Amy. "And why we can't create magic portals to other places, at least not without a massive amount of magic power, which we don't currently have available."

"So you reopen the Hellmouth, the stresses are relieved and the Gates start working again," said Dietrich. "I see."

"Actually we don't reopen the same Hellmouth, that's gone for good," said Leo. "What we do is open a new Hellmouth, but to the same place, to relieve the stress. At the moment the stress is continuing to build up and it's not just the Gates and this world it's affecting, it's having a disruptive affect in a lot of other places."

"We've decided the new Hellmouth will be in the basement here where the slayers and everybody else can keep an eye on it," said Fred. "Stop anything nasty from coming through and causing trouble."

"Without a new Hellmouth the risk is the stresses will build up to a point where there will be a major reaction, a sort of chain reaction," said Jenny. "It could destroy entire worlds and the Earth will be first in the firing line. The longer we wait the greater the stress and the greater the risk."

"But haven't things quietened down a bit in the past few days?" asked Lorne. "Is that down to your Elders or are things settling down naturally? If your people don't know exactly how things have been screwed up how do they know what will happen next?"

"The Elders have been doing what they can to keep a lid on things," said Leo. "But they think the current lull is just that. A lull before a much bigger storm. They're not certain, nobody can be certain, but that's the best information we've got or are likely to get."

"What I want to know is does this mean we'll be letting the First Evil out of its bottle again?" asked Amy. "After all we did to get rid of it. As soon as we open up a new Hellmouth what's to stop it from popping back into our world again and causing more trouble?"

"Once again we can't be absolutely certain but we don't think that will happen," said Leo. "The First Evil was a product of a sequence of events on Earth even though it had roots in the Hell Dimension. It needed to feed off the evil in this world in order to maintain itself and build up its power. We don't think it would have been able to survive in the demon realms. Without its usual prey it should have dissipated by now."

"But you might be wrong?" asked Amy.

Leo shrugged. "Nothing's certain, but the First Evil is something we've dealt with before and I'm sure we can deal with it again if we have to. It's a lesser and more long term hazard compared to what we think will happen in the near future if we don't open up a new Hellmouth."

"Hey children, are any of you thinking what I'm thinking? There's another big problem with this business of opening up a new Hellmouth downstairs," said Lorne.

"You mean what happens to us if we release all that stress in the basement here?" suggested Fred.

"Not just us but this entire world," said Lorne. "I mean yeah, nobody wants to have a volcano build up the pressure until it blows. But who in their right mind wants to be there, right on top of it, when they take the plug out?"

"What did the Elders say about that Leo?" asked Fred. "What will happen to us? Will we be destroying ourselves and this world?"

"Yeah, are they asking us to sacrifice our world to save a lot of others?" asked Gunn.

"The Elders don't know how bad things will be when the new Hellmouth is opened," said Leo. "All they know is the longer we take to open it the worse it will be, not just here but just about everywhere else. If we don't open it then eventually it will be forced open anyway by the stresses building up. If we take the initiative then we've got a better chance of controlling things."

"But the decision is up to you, you mortals," said Jenny. "We're not here to give orders. Nobody will force you to co-operate with Wolfram and Hart in opening a Hellmouth. The decisions are yours to make."

"Well that's mighty big of the Elders don't you think?" said Gunn sounding enormously unimpressed. "Destroy yourselves and the whole world or destroy the whole universe. But no, nobody's putting us under any pressure. It's entirely up to us."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The main preparation ahead of the spell to expel the Goa'uld once again would be for Lissie to contact and activate the Key once more. Once this was present and charged up then Prue, Piper and Paige would repeat the Power of Three spell that they had used back in the past to expel the Goa'uld. Phoebe wouldn't take part since the intention was to make things as much like what had happened before as possible. But of course this time there would be no Glory.

Lissie insisted on being alone when she contacted and activated the Key. "All Keepers are sworn to strict secrecy about how to activate the Key," she said. "It's not that I don't trust you people but I don't need to trust you to do this."

"Glory seemed to know what to do with the Key back in the past," said Piper. "And she wasn't a Keeper. It can't be that big a secret."

"And she and her ugly little demons knew just what to do back on Earth as well," said Xander.

"Yes, well I don't know how she found out about it," said Lissie. "All I know is she was a powerful witch back in my time. I suppose witches have ways of finding things out but it wasn't because I told her anything and I'm not telling you people any secrets of the Key either."

"No need to get upset," said Giles. "We're quite happy to leave you alone here in the library to do what you have to do. How long will you need?"

"No more than an hour, probably a lot less if it goes the way it should," said Lissie.

"In that case who's ready for a bite to eat?" asked Paige. "It must be hundreds of years since I last ate anything."

"Wait a minute," said Connor. "Don't you guys remember what happened to Dawn when she tried to come into this place? She was knocked sideways by all the magic around here. What's going to happen if Lissie brings the Key in here and activates it? Will there be another reaction?"

"You're right," said Giles. "We can't take that risk. The Key should be activated and the expulsion spell should be carried out well away from here and well away from any other active magic sources."

"How about back at the hotel, down in the basement?" suggested Paige. "Then we'll be in exactly the same place as when we did the spell back in the past."

"But things are happening there as well, maybe some sort of dark magic," said Buffy. "You'll need to stay well away from there if you want to avoid other magic. Willow and the others went to investigate what was going on. Has anybody heard back from them?"

Giles shook his head and the others generally looked blank.

"Well in that case I'm going over to the hotel to see what's happening there," said Buffy. "You guys don't need me to do all this magic spell business. But you'd better find somewhere safe to do it."

But before anybody could come up with another suggestion the lights of an incoming orb appeared in the middle of the room.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Chief Magister had finally arrived and Dawn, with Mooren, had been invited to a private meeting with him. Just the three of them were present. Nothing further had happened about the aircraft that had been seen overhead. But it was a big world and they were a long way away from any major cities. Even now the Goa'uld or whoever might be busy starting their conquest of the world.

"It's too late to start keeping secrets now," said the Magister. "You should have thought of that before."

"But I can't tell you everything I know about the future," said Dawn. "That would change everything."

"Maybe everything should be changed," said Mooren. "Not everything in our history was good. I expect you know of some pretty bad things in your history as well, things it would be good to change if you could."

"But you don't understand," said Dawn. "If I tell you things and they don't happen then I might not exist so I wouldn't be here to tell you about them and we'd have a paradox. Goodness knows what will happen then. More importantly my sister and all my friends might not exist any more and I'm not risking that."

"Ah, you believe in the linear nature of time," said the Magister. "It doesn't actually work like that. If it did then time travel wouldn't be possible at all."

"Could you explain all that?" asked Dawn. "What do you mean?"

"Yeah," said Mooren. "It went past a bit quick for me as well."

"OK. Well you think of time as flowing in one direction. Once the wave of the present passes by then events that are now in the past are finished with, over," said the Magister.

"Um yes, I suppose so," said Dawn. "But that's just the way things are."

"Is it?" said the Magister. "Well if that was true and you really have travelled in time then you being here is exactly what happened anyway, it was so to speak predestined to happen because it already happened. On the other hand your idea of time might be wrong in some way. There are other theories about a multitude of alternative futures, about time flow being circular or even reversible."

"So you're saying if it was predestined, if it always did happen, then it doesn't matter what I say I can't change the future," said Dawn.

"Yes, but like I said time might not be like that," said the Magister. "You might still be able to change things that have already happened by going back to the past because the past and the future too, is still accessible to those who know how to reach it. That doesn't mean we know all about time but it cannot be a simple linear process."

"So if what you just said is right I definitely shouldn't tell you anything, because it really could change the future," said Dawn.

"What you decide to do depends on what you are trying to achieve," said the Magister. "I would guess that you're here for a purpose. Since you don't know what that purpose is then it's probably somebody else's purpose. Once you achieve that purpose you might well find yourself back where you came from."

"Well that's a big help," said Dawn sarcastically. "I might be here for a purpose but I might not. I might be here to tell you all about the future but that might be the very thing I mustn't do. I might return when I've done it but I don't know what it is nor whether doing it will get me back home. And most important of all I don't know who sent me here and whether I should be on their side or not. Any other pearls of wisdom?"

"We can't solve your problems for you I'm afraid," said the Magister. "And even if we could would you believe us if we simply told you what to do? Would you do it?"

"No, I probably wouldn't," agreed Dawn. "I've got to do some thinking for myself. Do you have a library around here? Is there somewhere I can do some research into the Key, Time-travel and magic?"

"You're welcome to look through our library," said Mooren. "I don't know if it will have what you want but there are a lot of old books and scrolls there that nobody's looked at for a very long time."

And these people call themselves the 'Searchers After Truth' thought Dawn. Perhaps like a lot of people they already think they know the 'truth'. But she didn't say this out loud. "Thanks for that," she said. "I hope it has what I need."


	58. Plans and Preparations

**Chapter Fifty Eight: Plans and Preparations**

"How can it be Lilah doing all this? She's back on Earth isn't she?" asked Wesley.

"Is she?" asked Cordelia. "How do we know that? Magic brought us here. She has magic users working for her at Wolfram and Hart. She could have got here the same way."

"We don't know for sure she's still on Earth. But we're cut off here with the Gates not working and everything. If Lilah's got anything to do with that I don't think she'd cut herself off at the same time," said Wesley. "Lilah's not one to put herself in any sort of danger if she can avoid it. She'll be back on Earth pulling the strings."

"I'm just saying this whole business has got Lilah Morgan and Wolfram and Hart all over it," said Cordelia. "Who else would want to maroon us all on another world? Who else would set up all sorts of traps and dangers to keep us busy? We know Wolfram and Hart are active on this world. And how did the Goa'uld find out about magic portals and all that if not from Wolfram and Hart?"

"From what little Tara had time to say to me I think Lilah's still back on Earth," said Willow. "She can't be in two places at once."

"Can't she?" asked Gwen. "Maybe she's got her own private Gate or portal somewhere and she's keeping it open somehow. I thought anything was possible with magic."

"Not quite anything," said Willow. "Magic has rules like anything else. If we can't use magic to make a portal back to Earth then her people must be having just as much trouble."

"But you guys haven't tried to open up a portal lately have you?" said Gwen. "It might not be as hard as you think."

"That's something we'll find out when we're ready to leave," said Willow. "No point in making a major effort until then. It'll just be a waste of energy."

"Wesley has studied the way magic works longer than anybody else here," said Cordelia turning to him. "If you wanted to be in two places at once, on two worlds at once, how would you do it?"

"There might be a way," said Wesley thoughtfully. "The first thing I'd need would be a surrogate."

"A surrogate?" asked Gwen. "What's that?"

"It's a who rather than a what," said Wesley. "Magically speaking it's somebody who can be primed to take on the personality and knowledge of another. Somebody who would not necessarily know what they were doing but who at certain moments would carry out the intentions of the original person. Maybe somebody who has worked with Lilah and Wolfram and Hart in the past."

With one accord everybody turned and looked suspiciously at Eve.

"Wrong!" said Eve. "Totally wrong! I'm not Lilah Morgan. I'm not even a pretend Lilah Morgan. You guys will never give it up will you? No matter how much I help you, you still try to blame me for every thing you don't understand."

"There's somebody else here who was working magic long before Wesley Oh-So-Nice was even born," said Anya, annoyed to have been overlooked. "If you think all magic is bound by rules then you know nothing. All you need to remember is the greater the power the fewer the rules. If Wolfram and Hart really want to do something, like destroy the world or even the universe then there are no rules. It just depends on whether they have the power."

"I'm not sure that's right," began Willow.

"How about we get back to thinking about Lilah Morgan and Eve," interrupted Cordelia. "Even if she's not Lilah by another name she's been in the right place at the right time. She could have opened this Hellmouth and shut down the Stargates. There have been a few times when none of us were with her. She had the opportunity."

"Did I? And exactly how could I have opened a Hellmouth?" asked Eve. "Do you think it's in the Wolfram and Hart how-to-do book? Chapter One: How to open a Hellmouth. Chapter Two: How to take over the world. Chapter Three: How to destroy the Universe. Oh yeah, opening a Hellmouth. Who couldn't do that? And if it's so easy why couldn't one of you have done it? Why couldn't Cordy have done it? Or black magic Willow? Or any one of a half hundred witches on this world, most of whom you've never even met."

"Maybe you didn't know what you were doing?" suggested Gwen. "You don't know what Lilah might have done to you while you were still at Wolfram and Hart. You might have done it but not remember what you did?"

"What about this amulet then?" asked Eve holding out the amulet that she still wore on a chain around her neck. "Wouldn't this have been compromised? It's still working isn't it? It's still protecting me from being taken over by somebody else?"

Eve's last question was directed to Willow who focused her attention on the amulet which she had made herself with Tara's help.

"Yes it is. That rules out any involuntary actions but it doesn't mean you haven't been working against us of your own free will," said Willow. "You might not be Lilah's surrogate but that doesn't mean you're not acting as her agent."

"Well, well, well," said Eve with a sudden change of tone. "All the time I've been with you people I've done nothing against you. I've done nothing to help your enemies and everything to help you but you still don't trust me. Thanks very much."

"It's not that we don't trust you..." began Wesley.

"Oh no," said Cordelia. "It's exactly that we don't trust you."

To the surprise of everybody else Eve's face now broke out in a wide smile. "I don't have time for any more games with you people. At least you've started to work out that you've got a problem. You've come up with pretty well all the wrong answers but hey, keep trying. You might get there eventually. I'll see you around, maybe."

And with that, to the surprise of everybody present, Eve disappeared, in fact she orbed away. It wasn't quite the same as when Tara or one of the other Whitelighters orbed but it was similar enough to make them all think.

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As Sam Carter entered the Kallistien Witch HQ she was depressed and lost in thought. She was going to have to tell Daniel and Teal'c what had happened to Jack and she was working out the best way to break it to them. Just come right out with it she told herself. What else could she do?

She could hardly believe he was gone, after all they had been through together. Sam was aware that the sense of loss had not yet really hit her, maybe because she hadn't seen a body and some part of her still thought Jack was alive and well somewhere out there as he always had been before.

Busy, got to keep busy thought Sam. If I let this get to me now I won't be of any use to anybody. There are people depending on me to get them home. They'll be time to deal with this once we're back home. But of course things won't be as simple as that she thought. They never were.

Still lost in thought as she walked up the stairs Sam turned and started up the next flight and nearly walked into a man coming the other way. The man dodged aside at the last moment.

"Hey Sam," said Daniel. "Remember me?"

Sam looked up in surprise. She was pleased to see Daniel at last and forced a smile. She gathered herself to give him the bad news. If Teal'c wasn't in the building she would have to contact him when she reached the SG Communication Center upstairs so that she could tell him about what had happened.

"Daniel, I've got something to tell you..." she began only to be interrupted by Daniel.

"Whatever it is perhaps you could wait and tell Jack at the same time," said Daniel. "That way you only have to go through it once."

"Jack? Jack's alive? He's here? How?" asked a puzzled and delighted Sam. This time her smile wasn't forced.

"Yup he's alive. He spoke to the people at our main base but you'd already left," said Daniel.

"Wait a minute. Did the self-destruct on the ship work? Is that why Jack made it? Is the ship still likely to hit? Although by now..." said a still puzzled Sam.

"Yes, the ship was destroyed, it blew up. It's not going to hit the city. As for how Jack got here, don't bother to work it out logically," said Daniel. "This time it seems we really do have somebody up there looking out for us, a real honest to goodness guardian angel. Or at least Jack does."

"OK Daniel, just explain what happened and please leave out all the mystical bits," said Sam.

"I'm not sure I can. Anyway it's Jack's story, well Jack and Tara. He'll explain it to you when you see him," replied Daniel.

"Tara? So that's how he got out. Tara orbed in and grabbed him," said Sam.

"That's right but there's still a mystery about it," said Daniel. "Tara says she only usually hears a call for help from one of the witches she deals with."

"Jack's a witch?" said Sam.

"No, that's not it, or not according to Tara," said Daniel. "And Jack didn't call for help, not in the way witches do anyway. He was surprised to see her."

"I'll bet he was. So if she didn't hear a call for help how did she know he needed help? How did she know where he was? I don't suppose it was all a coincidence and she was just orbing up there for some other reason?" asked Sam.

"No it wasn't that. As you know Tara's been on the ship before so she could orb up there. But she thinks the local 'Powers That Be' took a hand and sent her a message that she was needed," said Daniel.

"The 'Powers That Be?' The powers that be what?" asked Sam.

Daniel shrugged: "I have no idea," he said. "You'll have to talk to Tara about that. Anyway Tara just got back from Earth..."

"The Gates?" asked Sam. "Do you mean they're working now?"

"Afraid not. They're still out of commission," said Daniel. "She came back some other way. Something of a long way round from what I can gather. Which I won't tell you about unless you change your mind about the mystical bits. But she thinks she knows why the Gates aren't working."

"In that case I need to talk to her as soon as I can," said Sam. "Maybe it's something I can fix. But before I do that you've got to tell me everything that happened on your trip to the past."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Tell me about it. I know the feeling. You want to go out and slay something, anything," said Connor.

Buffy looked at Connor and nodded. "Things are always much simpler when you can solve all your problems with a sword or a short wooden stick," she said. "Yeah, I could do with cutting a few heads off right now."

The problem at issue was getting Dawn back. After the return of Tara who had explained the current situation Buffy had changed her mind about going to the new Hellmouth. All sorts of problems were now receiving attention and there was at least the beginning of a plan for dealing with the Goa'uld and restoring the Stargates to working order. But as yet nobody had any idea of how to get Dawn back or even to find out exactly where or when she had gone.

"But it was never like that was it?" said Xander. "The slayer I remember always dealt with the big issues by using her intelligence, not by just charging in and killing."

"Slaying!" said Buffy. "Slaying! I don't kill people, I slay vampires and demons. There's a difference. And yes, we always had a plan. Well we usually had a plan. Well sometimes we had a plan but the slaying always helped. If you see anything slayworthy let me know."

"Let's examine the problem from the beginning," said Giles. "Perhaps that will help us to work out a solution."

"It'll also help us understand everything that's happening," said Angel. "Things have become rather hectic since Tara appeared with Jack."

"OK first point. Where is everybody and what are they doing right now?" asked Buffy. "This place suddenly looks almost empty with just us here."

"The Halliwells have gone to talk to the local witches to show them how to do the anti-Goa'uld spell after we've left," said Giles. "Now that Tara's explained how the spell will isolate Kallistien again the Halliwells can't do it themselves without being trapped here by their own magic and the power of the Key. They're hoping the massed power of the Kallistien witches will be at least as strong as the Power of Three."

"Faith and Drusilla have taken Lissie to a military base a few miles away so that she can do whatever it is she needs to do with the Key without interference from all the magic around here," said Xander. "When she's ready the Kallistien witches will join her and do the spell from there."

"Jack and Daniel are rounding up their people ready to leave before the spell is done," said Angel. "They should be able to do that pretty quickly by using the Goa'uld transport rings. They're also calling in the crews of the shuttles they've still got up in space. They're going to get all their people to the on-planet Stargate. If we still can't get it to work we move onto plan B."

"And everybody else is at the hotel watching that local Hellmouth," said Giles.

"Oh and I think Tara's orbing around all over the place making sure everybody knows what's going on," said Angel.

"While we're left sitting here wondering what to do," said Connor.

"We're here trying to work out how to get Dawn back," said Buffy. "And as far as I'm concerned that's the most important job of all."

"Wait a minute, what exactly is Plan B? Suppose the Gate still won't work. What happens next? asked Xander. "It's all very well asking the Kallistians to do the 'get-rid-of-the-Goa'uld' spell after we've gone but we're still here and we can't be sure we'll be able to leave."

"Yes, I think I missed that bit as well," said Buffy.

"Well although it's very difficult it does still seem possible to open magic portals if you have enough magic power," said Giles.

"Yes, Willow and Phoebe did get us off that other Goa'uld ship," said Buffy. "But that was only a short hop compared to getting us all the way back home."

"As I understand it, if the Gate remains off line, the plan is that when everybody is ready to go, all our witches: Willow, Tara, Cordy, Anya, the Halliwells, everybody, will work together to try to open up a portal back to Earth," said Giles. "Between them they might just be able to do it."

"And if the magic doesn't work properly and all that wonderful magic power can't get through?" asked Conner sourly, as usual not convinced of the wisdom of relying on magic.

"Then it's plan C I guess and we'll have a fun filled trip back through a gazillion different hell dimensions, going back the way Tara came," said Xander. "That should make you happy. Plenty of demons and things to kill."

"OK, back to the original point. How do we get Dawn back?" asked Buffy.

"Not just how but when do we get Dawn back?" replied Giles. "If we succeed in bringing Dawn back now it might bounce Lissie straight back to where she came from. Without Lissie here to activate and control the Key the Kallistien witches won't be able to do the anti-Goa'uld spell."

"But if Dawn comes back here after the spell is done she'll be stuck here and won't be able to get home," said Connor. "It won't matter if she comes back on her own or if she's brought back by the local witches, she still won't be able to leave this world."

"If that happens then I'll be stuck here with her," said Buffy. "I'm not leaving without Dawn."

"And if Dawn finds her own way back to Earth with you stuck here?" asked Giles.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The stopping of the force pulling the Goa'uld spaceships back towards the planet was sudden and complete. One moment the fleet was straining its engines in an unsuccessful effort to resist the power acting on the ships and the next those same engines, with no force to pull against, were propelling the fleet at high speed in the opposite direction away from the planet.

After waiting awhile to see if the force would start up again Apophis ordered his fleet to halt while he considered his options. At the same time he ordered a check on the Stargates to see if they were now working. This check showed that all of the gates were still non functional. Apophis now called a meeting of his most senior advisors.

To start with Apophis kept his own counsel. He decided not to reveal his own thoughts until the end of the meeting. He did not want to be told what his advisors thought he wanted to hear. He wanted their analysis of what was happening and what to do next.

The majority opinion was that Apophis should cut his losses and leave the system. Get out while the going was good and while he still had his fleet. There were still captive magic users aboard the flagship and they would prove to be a long term asset, so the expedition was not a complete loss. In the long term Apophis would be stronger.

The second most popular view was exactly the opposite. To leave now would be to retreat. There was no way this could be concealed from other Goa'uld lords who would be encouraged to attack Apophis in the belief that he had been weakened. It might even prompt an alliance of jackals seeking to dismember Apophis's empire. There were a lot of other Goa'uld with a score to settle against Apophis and they might see this as their best chance.

This minority view proposed that Apophis should continue on towards the planet and complete the conquest of it. If there was any reactivation of whatever it was that had been pulling in the fleet all ships should fire off their missiles towards the point of origin of the force in the capital city in order to destroy it and make sure it could not be used again. Yes, the Tau'ri had captured a Goa'uld ship to use against them but it could not stop the entire fleet.

Apophis's temperament was strongly against any retreat, something which all his advisors were well aware of. The fact that so many of them had proposed just that gave Apophis pause. Some of his people were clearly rattled by what they did not understand, by magic. Perhaps he should after all retreat and have his people study this business of magic before risking any further confrontation with it?

No! Apophis decided emphatically. This was his opportunity. Go forward or go back, retreat and crumble or attack and triumph. That was the way the universe worked. That was how he had reached his present position of power. A world of magic users was too great a prize to give up on now.

Anyway his enemies the Tau'ri were present on the world. They had formed an alliance with the Kallistien witches and now had the assistance of many powerful magic users. If he just left the planet behind he would allow his enemies to consolidate their position. By the time he next faced them they would be even more formidable than they were now. They would certainly publicise their success in driving his fleet away.

Apophis gave his orders. The fleet was to advance on the planet. The planet was to be subdued and all resistance destroyed. If there was any resumption of the force drawing his ships down to the planet every ship was to fire off its full supply of missiles at the origin of the force. Otherwise ground forces should be directed towards the point of origin in order to investigate it and see if it could be captured and used by Apophis himself.

There was one exception to the orders given by Apophis. His own flagship would remain in its present distant location to allow him to observe what happened. Just in case things went wrong the flagship would be ready to leave the area at a moment's notice carrying Apophis and all of the captive magic users away to Apophis's home planet.


	59. Still in the Dark?

**Chapter Fifty Nine: Still in the Dark?**

"Are you sure it happened at the same time?" asked Willow. "At exactly the same time?"

"I don't know about exactly but that's just about when the force coming out of the Hellmouth stopped broadcasting. I'm sure of it," said Cordelia. "And it wasn't anything I did, it just stopped."

"Well I certainly didn't do anything," said Willow looking around at the others. Anya, Kennedy, Wesley and Gwen added a chorus of "me neither."

"So Eve has been playing games," said Wesley. "If this force stopped just at the time she disappeared then it's likely she had something to do with it operating in the first place. But why stop it now? And why start it up in the first place?"

"Has she got that sort of power?" asked Willow. "You guys know a lot more about her than I do but I didn't think she had any magic power. I thought she was just some sort of Wolfram and Hart lawyer type person."

"She's not a witch," said Cordelia. "She shouldn't even be able to disappear like that."

"Or not as far as you know," said Kennedy. "She could have been hiding her powers."

"That might be why she was recruited by Wolfram and Hart in the first place," said Gwen. "She could be a powerful magic user and didn't want us to know it."

"There's another possibility," said Anya. "That might not have been Eve. It could have been something from out of the Hell Dimension that was pretending to be Eve. Eve could have be captured or killed when she was on her own down there. That might have been a shape shifter pretending to be Eve."

"I don't know. A shape shifter can look like somebody else but acting like her, sounding like her and knowing the things she knew. That's a different thing altogether," said Wesley. "And she must have been much more than just a shape shifter if she was sending out that force into space. She teleported herself without any sort of magic spell, not that I noticed anyway. She's either got some sort of natural ability or a lot of raw power."

"Well there's one person we know of who fits all the criteria," said Willow. "Who is it who lives in a Hell Dimension? Who is known to have spent some time in another identity? Who knows enough about Earth to pretend to come from there and who has a lot of raw power?"

"Are you saying that Eve is Glory?" asked Cordelia.

"And Glory is Eve," said Anya.

"Either that or Glory has done something to Eve and taken her place," said Willow.

"You don't think she's after Dawn again do you?" asked Anya. "You don't think that's why Dawn's disappeared?"

"I don't see why Glory should have anything to do with Dawn any more," said Willow. "She wanted to use Dawn to get home. As far as we know she went home when the Sunnydale Hellmouth was shut down. Why should she want Dawn now?"

"Power," said Wesley. "That's what it's always about, power. Creatures like Glory can never get enough power. Back on Earth everybody thought the Key couldn't be activated again. Now we know differently. Glory might think she can use Dawn to make herself even more powerful. Or she might be doing what the Goa'uld have been trying to do; get control of a world of witches."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Another library! Whatever did the human race do before it invented libraries, before it invented writing thought Dawn? Had a lot better memories I suppose. Dawn smiled as she visualised an image of a stone age Giles in a Fred Flintstone setting, chipping away at a stone slab instead of writing in a book.

Dawn had paused briefly in her search through the available written records of the community. She had been trying to discover something which made sense of her present predicament and give her some idea of how to return back home or at least back to present day Kallistien.

There were some books in the library of the 'Seekers' but they seemed to be something of a new innovation. Most of the library consisted of shelf after shelf of scrolls, all rolled up, tied in ribbons and gathering dust. Indexing and cataloguing seemed to be rudimentary so the research was proving to be a long and tiresome business, even with the help of Mooren.

Things would have been a little easier had Dawn known what she was looking for. Well she did know but there was hardly likely to be anything like a detailed guide to time travel. So she had had to be more creative in her thinking. At the moment she was facing a large pile of scrolls which had been categorised as 'The use of power in its many forms' by the local librarians.

The discard pile had quickly grown because the category covered such diverse subjects as how to build a windmill, political revolutions and a great variety of religious beliefs. If only she could find some reference to the Key and what it was all about. If it, if she, really was this all powerful artefact there must be some way to use that power to put things right. Just so long as she stayed human when she did it.

Dawn had so far come up with one good idea. She had reasoned with Mooren and the Magister that her appearance and the simultaneous disappearance of Lisabet must be linked. The most likely link was that Lisabet had been swapped with Dawn. If they helped Dawn to get home they would most likely get their Lisabet back. The Magister had now left but he had promised to see what he could find out about the Key and any related matters as soon as he arrived back at his own community.

"How about this?" asked Mooren interrupting Dawn's little break from reading. She pushed the scroll that she had been reading in front of Dawn. "It says here that in the days of the Tau'ri the paths were open but in these later days everybody must stay where they are because of the danger of the Enemy."

"The Enemy?" asked Dawn. Could that be a reference to the Goa'uld or somebody even worse she wondered. Were the paths the Stargates? She had asked about the Stargates but nobody knew anything about them. More importantly they did not know of anything that looked like a Stargate.

"Who knows," replied Mooren. "I don't really know who the Tau'ri were, let alone their enemies."

"Add Tau'ri to the list of references to look out for in these papers," said Dawn. "But doesn't the Magister have something to do with them?"

"I suppose so. But the Magisters and the Matres are like the Keepers. They don't say anything about themselves unless they really have to," said Mooren. "But I'm sure they'll help if they can," she added quickly.

I wonder if that's true thought Dawn. Could they be the ones who brought me here in the first place? Are they up to something they don't want to tell me about? And if they are is there anything I can do about it anyway?

All at once Dawn began to feel hot, very hot. She pulled off her sweater but it didn't help, she was sweating buckets and feeling very odd indeed. Abruptly she found herself sitting on the floor.

"Are you alright?" asked Mooren from her position of standing over Dawn. It sounded as if Mooren was at the other end of a long tunnel. Dawn could barely hear her but it briefly crossed her mind, before she lost consciousness, what a ridiculous question to ask somebody who felt the way she did.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"And I say we wait. Things are a little calmer now so what's the rush? When somebody tries to rush you into doing something it's generally to stop you from thinking about it too much," said Lorne. "Fools Rush In..." he added in song.

"Rush? We've been sat here for how long waiting to do this?" said Amy. "We've talked it through every which way. When somebody keeps on trying to delay you from doing something it's because they don't want you to do it at all."

"Guilty! I don't think this is a good idea at all," said Lorne. "I've not been able to 'read' those Wolfram and Hart people who were here yesterday because they were not going to burst into song for my benefit. And if they did it would just make me more suspicious anyway since I expect they've got some sort of protection. But I do know smug satisfaction when I see it. If we go ahead and do this we'll be playing into their hands. Whatever they've really got planned you can be sure it's all bad news for our side."

What Lorne didn't mention again was the recent fiasco of his reading of the other persons present in the HQ. The result had been a total blank, in all cases. It might be that something or somebody was stopping his talent from working in that particular area. But it might be that everybody in the building had no future destiny to speak of and they were all headed for disaster.

But Lorne thought the reason for his inability to make readings was because things were on a complete knife edge. They were all poised between calamity and success and nobody had a certain destiny at this point. Lorne had mentioned the first and third possibilities but not the second. If the second was true it would do no good at all for everybody to worry about it.

"So what are you suggesting, that we sit here like Mister Macawber waiting for something to turn up?" asked Fred. "Because according to the Whitelighters the longer we delay the worse things are going to be. This isn't something that's gonna heal itself. We broke it so we've got to help fix it."

"Don't forget that whole lose the world, save the universe thing," said Gunn. "I'm still not really sure about that and I don't think the Whitelighters are either."

"It's times like these when a vision from somebody would be a help," said Wood who, together with Vi, had joined the others at the slayer HQ.

"Yeah, we did have a whole host of people with the vision thing," said Gunn. "But none of them are here now, not even the slayers with their weird dreams."

"Can't witches scry the future or something?" asked Vi looking at Amy. "A powerful witch like you must know some way of reading the tea leaves."

"I suppose I could try to bring forth an oracle," said Amy.

"I don't like the sound of that," said Wood. "All the oracles I ever read about give cryptic answers that you can interpret pretty well any way you please. You only know you've got it wrong when it's too late."

"The oracle I have in mind is a three question oracle," said Amy. "People go wrong because they don't ask clear enough questions. We should be able to work out something suitable to ask ahead of time. And anyway we can still ignore the oracle if we don't understand it."

"That's not generally the problem," said Wood. "The biggest mistakes were made by people who thought they did understand the answers but overlooked quite different meanings. And some oracles are deliberately cryptic so they can claim they got it right whatever happens."

"Well I say go for it," said Gunn. "I don't want to pull the trigger until we know there's no other way. It's not like we'd get a second chance if the world went to hell."

Amy looked at Fred who nodded. Wood shrugged.

"Why not?" said Vi. "Find out as much as we can. I can't see how that could be wrong, so long as it doesn't take too long."

"OK, But I've got to get some supplies from the shop," said Amy. "I'll be back here in a hour or two. In the meantime you guys think about what three questions you want to ask."

"No black magic," said Wood.

"Who's the witch here?" replied Amy with a glare. "Either you leave this up to me or you do it yourself." Black magic! She thought as she left the room. Now everyone's an expert.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nobody noticed exactly when Piper Halliwell disappeared. Her sisters, well mainly Prue, were talking to the senior Kallistien witches, explaining about what needed to be done to finally get rid of the Goa'uld. Piper was glad to leave them to it and had gone to look out of the window at the city outside. She was beginning to feel very home sick and was wondering when she would be able to get back to Leo.

The witch HQ was one of the tallest buildings in the city and the meeting was taking place near the top of the building. Piper therefore had a good view of the city laid out before her. One of the more obvious features of the view beneath her was the smoke that came from a large number of different places over the northern horizon on the outskirts of the city.

Piper knew that there was still some fighting going on there against some of the Jaffa left on the planet. She didn't know whether they were Jaffa left behind by Apophis or some holdouts from Marduk's forces who had not obeyed the order to surrender. The Kallistians insisted that they were continuing to make progress and would soon eliminate the last of the invaders currently on the planet. This of course assumed the success of the spell to provide protection against Apophis's fleet which would ensure that the Jaffa were not reinforced and supported by the massive firepower that it could supply.

"It looks a lot different to the last time I saw it," said a familiar female voice from behind Piper.

"You mean back in the past?" asked Piper without turning. As she spoke Piper realised who was speaking to her and turned. Before she could react in any other manner she felt a hand on her arm. Her vision was now filled with white light, stopping her from seeing anything at all. The person in front of her was now just a silhouette.

As the silhouette gradually became clearer Piper realised she was in a quite different place. It looked like a room in one of the local hotels. She raised her hands ready to use her power if she needed to protect herself.

"We need to talk," said the other woman as for the first time Piper confirmed in her own mind who it was. "And put your hands down. You're not in any danger from me and you can't destroy me anyway."

"Don't be too sure of that," said Piper but she put her hands down anyway. "When I'm really pissed off I can do a lot of damage, even to the likes of you. Anyway what do you want? I haven't seen you for, well at least hundreds of years."

"But not hundreds of your years," said the other. "You just got back from the past right?"

Piper nodded. Has she been waiting for us to get back she wondered. Does she remember all that happened back there?

"So you remember how we were all on the same side back then?"

"Uh huh," agreed Piper. "But I've been told some of the things you did before... uh afterwards... oh whatever. You know what I mean. Anyway why should I trust you now?"

"Just listen OK? Just hear me out and don't lose it because..."

"Because I'm not the person who nearly lost a sister or a girlfriend because of you," said Piper.

"That's all over and done with. Just listen. You and the rest of the people from your world will all be leaving soon."

"That's the plan, if it works," said Piper who then wondered if she should have said that.

"Let's say it does work. You must tell your people not to shut down the Hellmouth in the hotel before you go."

"Why exactly?" asked Piper.

"Your last little effort didn't work out too well did it? If you shut this one down you might cause more of the same trouble."

"Try again," said Piper. "This is a new Hellmouth. Well the Kallistians say it's new although it's in the same place as that Hellmouth in the past. Why should it stay open now when it hasn't been open for so long? Don't you mean it's convenient to you to have this Hellmouth stay open?"

"I reopened this Hellmouth myself. A lot of Hellmouths have been opened in all sorts of places recently to try to reduce the pressure that's been building up. That's the only reason your world and mine and a lot of others haven't been blown away yet. Think of it as an emergency safety valve. You shut down this Hellmouth and you make everything a lot worse. You might destroy your own world."

"I'll tell everybody what you said," replied Piper. "That doesn't mean they'll agree to do what you want. I know a lot of them don't trust you. But wait a minute. If you're the one who opened the Hellmouth are you the one who pulled in all those spaceships? Are you the one who sent those demons and whatever through to this planet?"

"Once a Hellmouth is open all sorts of demons will come through on their own. You know that. This is a world of witches. The Kallistians will just have to set up their own watch on it."

"And the force?" asked Piper.

"Yes, that was me. If you think about it you'll be able to work out for yourself why I did that. You know the way your spell against the Goa'uld worked. You don't want this lot of Goa'uld getting away before the spell is done by the Kallistians. They'll only find a way to come back again with even greater force. I simply kept them hanging around up there until you guys got back. I don't like the Goa'uld. I don't want any of them to get away."

Maybe she doesn't know we didn't kill off the Goa'uld last time thought Piper, we just drove them away. Wait a minute that doesn't make sense. "Why don't you..." began Piper with yet another question.

But before she could finish the sentence the other woman took her hand and the white light was back again. When it disappeared the other woman was gone and Piper was back in the room where her sisters were still talking to the Kallistians. Nobody had known she had been missing! Piper walked over to the others and started to explain what had happened.

Not very far away the woman who had been speaking to Piper materialised back in the hotel room. It was in another tall building overlooking the central area of the city. As she appeared she saw that another woman was waiting for her.

"And just who are you," demanded Glory who was the woman who had been waiting. "Why are you pretending to be me and what exactly are you up to?"

Glory watched an exact replica of her own face break out in a smile, followed by a laugh, a very familiar laugh, her own laugh.

"You know nearly as much as I do about what's going on and you still ask that," said the mirror image woman. "Just give it a few moments thought and you'll work out who I am."

With that the woman disappeared, effortlessly defying the power that Glory had been applying to prevent her from doing just that. Not only did she disappear but Glory was unable to trace where she had gone. As the mystery woman had suggested Glory began to think about who it was who was impersonating her.

It was ridiculous. Nobody had as much power as she did, not now she was back to her full power as a Hellgod. Nobody... Oh, thought Glory, of course. That's who she must be! And with that the Hellgod disappeared herself.


	60. Multi Problems

**Chapter Sixty: Multi Problems**

Just to make sure nothing had changed Sam dialled up Earth from the Kallistien DHD as soon as she reached the Gate but as expected it produced no response. The Gate still wasn't working, everything was still dead. Jack had accompanied Sam to the Gate having already explained to her exactly what had happened to him up on the spaceship.

"It was all in a blaze of lights," he continued. "One minute there I was pounding along the corridor at full speed with the countdown in the background. The next there's a blaze of lights all around me and I'm being hugged by a beautiful woman. I didn't know whether my number was up or it was my lucky day."

"Don't let Willow hear you talk like that," said Sam with a smile. "I hear she's um, somewhat overprotective about Tara."

Before Jack could respond to that Tara herself arrived, ending any further discussion on that topic. She arrived by orb and had brought Daniel with her. Daniel had agreed to find Tara and persuade her to come to the Gate where Sam could question her about what she knew.

"OK," Sam said to Tara. "Could you please explain everything you were told about why the Stargates aren't working. Please don't leave anything out. Even one little detail might be important if I'm to have any chance of getting the Gate working again."

Tara nodded. "Right, well to start with are you familiar with the concept of the Multiverse?" she asked.

"Lots of alternate realities, each a little different from each other?" said Sam. "We've had a little experience of that sort of thing."

"We generally call them dimensions," said Tara. "Well that's all off in one direction or along one plane so to speak. But the Multiverse comes in several um, layers. As well as these alternate dimensions which are pretty well alternative to our universe there are higher and lower dimensions as well and these also stretch out into a multitude of alternatives."

"Higher and lower in what sense?" asked Sam.

"Higher as in the sense of heavens and lower as in the sense of hells," said Tara. "In a manner of speaking."

"Does that mean when you die..." began Daniel.

"Let's keep to the point shall we and leave the metaphysical side of things to another time," said Jack quickly.

"But don't just think of one up, one down," said Tara. "There are various levels of hell and various levels of heaven."

"Seems Dante..." began Daniel again only to break off as Jack glared at him.

"These dimensions, levels, hells, heavens and such like are linked to each other in what some would call the Multiverse," continued Tara. "And the links are important. So is the position of each universe relative to the others. Some places are nearby, in a sense next door, and others are further away and harder to reach. The ones next to us are the most similar. The further away you go the stranger things become."

"Daniel says you explained that this whole arrangement is now under stress." said Sam.

"Exactly," said Tara. "Because of the build up of stress, things are being distorted and in some places they're pulling apart. Normally there's room for some expansion and contraction and even for a regular amount of new creation but there's now a danger of things pulling apart too quickly and there is a risk of a massive chain reaction across worlds, universes and dimensions."

"OK, I'm with you so far," said Sam.

"Nice to know somebody is," said Jack.

"I won't ask how you know all this or how to put it right because I understand other people will be working on that. At the moment all I want to know is how this stress has caused the Stargates to go off line," said Sam. "What are the physical symptoms in this universe, our universe, which have caused the network to stop working?"

"The worlds have moved," said Tara. "The worlds in our universe are no longer in the same position relative to each other. It's not an enormous difference yet but the stresses have distorted our universe just a little. Space-time is no longer the same shape so the Gates in this universe are no longer in the positions the Gate network thinks they are relative to each other."

"Are we talking expansion or contraction here?" asked Sam. "And is it regular or irregular?"

Tara shrugged and shook her head. "I have no idea," she said.

"At least you've given me something I can work on," said Sam thoughtfully.

"You think you can fix it?" asked Jack.

"I think it might be like the problem we had when we first got the Stargate working," said Sam. "You remember we had to compensate for the movement of the planets in the years since the Gate was last used?"

"Uh huh," agreed Jack.

"Well if our universe has expanded or contracted regularly I should eventually be able to reset the DHD to the new co-ordinates and get the Gate working again," said Sam.

"Define eventually," asked Jack dryly.

"I don't have the SGC computers here," said Sam. "And for all I know our universe has not expanded or contracted regularly. I might get lucky or I might not. It might take a few minutes or it could take years. And all the time things are still moving so I might never get it right."

"Somehow I think you'll be able to do this," said Tara. "I'm a witch as well as a Whitelighter and good luck is something that is very susceptible to magic."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lissie screamed and jumped backwards about ten feet to fall sprawling on the floor. This brought Faith and Drusilla running into the room from the room next door. By the time they reached the young Keeper she had sat up and was getting to her feet apparently unharmed.

"What happened?" asked Faith looking closely at the young woman. "Are you alright?"

"Is it something to do with the Key?" asked Drusilla. "Has something gone wrong?"

"I'm OK," said Lissie. "No harm done. And yes, it is something to do with the Key."

"What a surprise," said Faith. "As soon as we have a plan that looks like working something always messes it up and makes it all more complicated. Why can't things go smoothly for a change?"

"But we always seem to muddle through anyway," said Drusilla to Faith. "Don't worry so much." Seems Faith needs more faith she thought to herself but she said nothing more. Faith was not the sort of person who would take kindly to any attempted spiritual guidance. Maybe when she's a few years older the souled vampire mused.

Since having a soul once more Drusilla had begun to gradually feel like a real person again. The person she had been before she was turned into a vampire. Religious faith had been very important to the original Drusilla and the souled vampire had gradually come to the view that everything that had happened to her was part of a greater plan, that in the long run it was all for the greater good.

"So what's wrong with the Key?" asked Faith. "Can you fix it? Can you still do what we planned?"

"Nothing's wrong," said Lissie. "It's just that the Key's already active. I was trying to switch on something that's already switched on. It was already live with energy. I thought it was closed down."

"And you couldn't tell that before you tried to do whatever it is you were doing?" asked Faith.

As she asked the question Faith looked around but could see nothing that could be thought of as a Key. Everything in the room looked to be perfectly normal and exactly the way it had been the last time she had been there a short while before.

"Obviously not," said Lissie with a scowl.

"So what does it mean?" asked Faith. "Have we got to change our plans or not?"

"I don't know," said Lissie. "I've got to find out what's going on before I do anything else."

"And just how do you do that?" asked Faith.

"That's not something I can discuss with you," said Lissie.

"Fine!" said Faith. She turned away and started to leave but stopped and turned in the doorway: "I'll be next door then," she said. "Scream and make falling on the floor noises if you want my help."

"I'm sure you'll be able to sort things out," said Drusilla to Lissie quietly before leaving. "But if you do need any help just ask."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Glory? You think she's involved in this?" asked Buffy. "You really think she's the one who opened up this new Hellmouth?"

"We don't know for sure but it all fits," said Willow. "Did you know she originally came from this planet? Tara says Faith and the others met her back in the past when she was still human. She used to be a witch herself a long, long time ago."

"Yes. I remember Faith and the others explaining all that when they got back. I did hope we'd seen the last of her," said Buffy. "But sneaking around and pretending to be somebody else isn't really Glory's style. I know she was Ben but he was a different person really. Glory herself was always very up front with taking charge and giving the orders."

Buffy and the others with her had left the Witch HQ and met with Willow and the group at the Kallistien hotel which was the location of the new Hellmouth on the planet. Only Giles had remained behind to do more research and see if he could find out more about the Key.

Buffy and the others had decided that whatever plan they developed it would be a good idea to gather together and consult all of the various groups before making a move. They were now with Willow and her group in the basement of the hotel where they were keeping watch on the open Hellmouth.

The information provided by Tara required that everybody get back home as soon as possible. They would be needed back on Earth soon in order to deal with the fall out from opening up the new Hellmouth there. They also needed to leave Kallistien so that the Kallistians could carry out their barrier spell to protect themselves from the Goa'uld. That was becoming increasingly urgent.

"But if you're right there's no point in doing anything about the Hellmouth until we've done something about Glory," said Angel. "If you shut it down she'll just open it right back up again."

"Not necessarily," said Willow. "We've got a lot of pretty powerful magic users gathered here. I doubt Glory is more powerful than all of us put together. If we really want to I think we can shut this down permanently."

"Like we did back on Earth?" asked Anya. "Look how well that's worked out. Anyway Tara doesn't want us to shut this up yet. Not until we know we've got another way home."

"Glory turns up again and Dawn disappears again. I don't like the smell of this," said Buffy looking at Willow. "If it is Glory do you think we could track her down and shake the truth out of her?"

"What about Lissie?" asked Xander. "If Glory's back she'll be interested in the Key again and that means Lissie. We'd better warn her."

"Tara was back here for a short while and she told us all about Lissie," said Cordelia. "She orbed off to make sure Lissie and Faith were warned."

"Faith said this is Glory's original home planet," said Xander. "She might want to save it but I suppose we'd be stupid to rely on that."

"Eve did lead you to Tara," said Kennedy to Willow. "She didn't have to do that. If that was really Glory and not Eve then she might not be hostile."

"She couldn't have kept me from Tara anyway," said Willow firmly. "But whatever she's up to there's no way I'm gonna trust her. Not with her record."

"If it really is Glory doing all this," interjected Cordelia. "We don't know that for sure. We're dealing with a lot of worlds here. Why should we keep coming across the same characters all the time?"

"A good question," said Wesley. "Perhaps there's an unseen player manipulating things for their own reasons."

"Oh great," said Cordelia. "Just what I needed."

"An unseen player?" asked Wesley.

"In a way. I've just had another vision," said Cordelia. "The unseen players have just sent me another message."

"Saying what?" asked Angel.

"Saying hurry up and get out of here because we're running out of time," said Cordelia.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dawn opened her eyes and found herself looking up at the sky. What had happened? Where was she now? She felt OK but as she sat up she realised that once again she was in a place she didn't recognise. She had been lying on the grass, the blue-green type grass found on Kallistien. She was on the side of a hill in the sunshine a few yards down slope from a small copse of trees. Once again she was clothed in an unfamiliar dress.

"Lemi? Are you alright?" asked a voice from behind her, the voice of a young man. Dawn slowly got to her feet and turned to face him as he came down the hill towards her.

"You just seemed to shimmer for a moment, sort of disappear and reappear. What happened, how did... Lemi? You're not Lemi! Who are you and what have you done with Lemi?"

Dawn sighed. "My name's Dawn. I have no idea where your Lemi has gone. I certainly haven't done anything to her. I don't know what's happening. I don't know where I am and I don't know you. Oh and you didn't happen to see a large white rabbit around here did you?" And a mad hatter she added to herself.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"OK, land as close to the Gate as you can," said Jack into the radio microphone. "There's a big park a little west of here. Get everybody together and bring them all to the Gate. Make sure nobody is left behind because this might be a once only shot. By the time you get here Carter might have the Gate working again. If she doesn't we'll have to think of something else."

"More trouble?" asked Daniel as he joined Jack in the communications room. The SG communications team had moved their equipment to a house on the square next to the on-planet Kallistien Stargate. This was part of the gathering in of all Stargate personnel prior to everybody evacuating the world. The only SG people who had not so far arrived were Teal'c and the rest of the crews in the shuttles orbiting overhead.

"I just spoke to Teal'c," said Jack. "He says Apophis's fleet seems to be free of the unknown force. But it's not trying to run away. It's still on its way back to the planet but under its own power."

"Apophis hasn't given up on trying to take over this planet then," said Daniel.

"Did you think he would?" asked Jack. "I've told Teal'c to bring all the shuttles down. There's no point in him staying up there. Trying to use those shuttles to stop that fleet would be like trying to stop a hurricane by spitting into the wind. Anyway we've got to get everybody out of here."

"Has Apophis launched another missile strike?" asked Daniel.

"Teal'c says no. But that doesn't mean he's not going to," replied Jack. "I'm hoping he holds his fire. I hope he's low on armaments and we know he can't use his Gates to resupply. He doesn't know we're not still up there, shielded and waiting for him so he might be cautious and give us a little more time. How's Carter doing?"

"Still on the calculating and tweaking I think," said Daniel. "But I don't think it'll be long now before she makes her first attempt to dial up. Tara just got back with some witch potions and things."

"More magical assistance," said Jack with a sigh. "Oh what fun. Just so long as we don't have to do any dancing."

"Oh come on, after that rescue I should think you'd be the last person to complain about magic," said Daniel. "Without magic you wouldn't be here."

"Without magic I wouldn't need to be here," replied Jack. "This would be just another planet."

"Another planet ruled by the Goa'uld," said Daniel. "Don't knock it."

"You're right but I just don't like being manipulated," said Jack. "Somebody, some... thing, is pulling the strings here and they just yanked a big one. I'm meant to be grateful for the rescue? No, I am grateful... to Tara, but these hidden 'Powers?' No, I'm not grateful to them whoever they are. They're playing games. It wouldn't surprise me if they're the ones who screwed up the self destruct mechanism in the first place just so they could make a big play of rescuing me."

"Paranoid much?" said Daniel with a smile.

"Hey don't knock it," said Jack smiling back. "It's what's kept us alive all these years. Let's go see what Carter's doing now. I'm sure she'd benefit from a few of my helpful suggestions."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"But your visions don't tell you everything. You've said so yourself," said Willow.

"Oh yeah, but one thing always works out. If I ignore it, bad things follow." said Cordelia. "Either for us but more often for the people I'm meant to help, which in this case might just be everybody in the universe. It's not just that we've got to get out of here. We're needed back home. Isn't that what Tara said anyway?"

"OK," said Buffy. "So we all go through the Gate as soon as we can. We were going to do that anyway assuming Tara and Sam can get it to work."

"You were talking about not going," said Xander. And if you don't go then I don't go he had decided but he did not say that out loud. And if I don't go and Buffy doesn't go then I bet Willow won't go, maybe Giles and Angel as well. And if Willow doesn't go then Tara... It's best that Buffy goes he concluded and we sort out what to do about Dawn later, otherwise we'll be in a big mess.

"I've had an idea about that. Going through the Gate doesn't stop us coming back again and getting Dawn," said Buffy.

"It does if the Kallistians use their magic and the Key to barrier off their world as soon as we've gone," said Anya. "You'll get the busy signal or something if you try to come back through the Gate."

"Not if we go back through the Stargate before the barrier comes down," said Buffy.

"What's the point of that? If they do the spell straight away..." began Xander.

"You're thinking of time travel aren't you?" asked Willow.

"Yep. We go back to Earth and sort things out there. Assuming Dawn's not there waiting for us we then use magic to go back in time," said Buffy. "We go through the Stargate in the past to Kallistien in the past and then use more magic to find Dawn. We bring her back through the Stargate and when we're back on Earth we return to our own time. Anything wrong with that plan?"

"Complicated plans like that have a lot of things that could go wrong," said Wesley. "Like changing our own past."

"The Stargate people at the Command Center have been pretty protective of their Gate all the time it's been up and running. It won't be easy getting to use it in the past before they ever met us," said Angel.

"Am I the only one trying to work out how to get Dawn back?" asked Buffy, starting to get annoyed. "OK, we go back in time and use a magic portal or something instead of the Stargate and we steer clear of our past selves. And anybody who raises any objections to that had better be able to come up with a better plan at the same time!"

Silence descended on the group.


	61. Hurry Hurry

**Chapter Sixty One: Hurry Hurry**

If she could just make it to the Magic Box she should be alright. But that was the problem, making it. She hadn't shaken them yet and that indicated they weren't relying just on high tech gadgets. Her magic should have dealt with that. No, whoever was tracking her was using magic as well.

Amy had left the Slayer HQ to go and get the ingredients for the Oracle spell only a quarter of an hour earlier. It was a pitch black overcast night. No stars were showing and it had only stopped raining about an hour before. But at only nine o'clock in the evening there had been no reason to suppose there would be any particular problem in walking the short distance across town to the shop.

Yes this was Sunnydale, but a Sunnydale without a current Hellmouth and without the regular influx of vampires and assorted demons that had infested the town for so long. A few occasionally still turned up, maybe for old times sake but generally Sunnydale was no more dangerous than the average small American town, and a lot safer than some. But as Amy now realised, the town had changed in the last day or two and might now be infested with all sorts of human and non human dangers.

Wolfram and Hart were again in town and of course that didn't just mean Lilah Morgan and her pet magic users. Oh no. The whole Wolfram and Hart show on the road had come to town and that might have attracted the attention of all sorts of dubious elements who followed the 'law firm' or who just kept a general eye on them to see what they were currently up to.

And maybe agencies like the NID and perhaps Homeland Security were also still on the scene plus any other groups that wanted to know what they were up to. I should have worked this all out before I left the Slayer building Amy told herself and then she had another, quite horrifying thought.

Suppose the word is out? Suppose the demon, vampire and general underworld community had gotten wind of the opening of a new Hellmouth? And why wouldn't they? Wolfram and Hart might have spread the word themselves. All sorts of monsters would be coming from, well from all over the world probably. They would be in town looking to party once the new Hellmouth was opened and at the moment there were no Slayers about to keep them in check.

Amy knew she had been followed from soon after she left the Slayer HQ. Maybe somebody had planned to detain her once she was out of range of observation from the HQ. A veteran of the old 'Vampire' Sunnydale, at first she wasn't particularly bothered and she had carried out an elementary concealment spell immediately after turning into a dark alley. That had seemed to do the trick.

But not for long. A couple of blocks later the followers were back, well either the first followers or somebody else doing the same thing. So Amy had tried a rather more powerful spell. But once again that wasn't effective for very long.

Amy knew she couldn't stay for long in the doorway where she was currently standing, trying to catch a glimpse of whoever or whatever it was that was interested in her. So far she had just relied on her witch instincts, she hadn't actually caught sight of anybody but she knew they weren't far away. She could feel a nearby presence, a presence that was still very interested in her.

Amy was reasonably sure that her latest concealment spell would hold up for a few minutes longer. She had paused in the doorway and tried to contact the Slayer HQ with her cellphone. But she could not get through. It might have been a coincidence. There might be a technical fault or she could be in a poor reception area but Amy didn't think so. Somebody was blocking her communications. That being so she had no reason to hang around her current location any longer.

If Tara, Amy's assigned Whitelighter, had been on Earth Amy would have been able to call her for a pick up even without a phone but neither Leo nor Jenny would be tuned in to her in the same way. Nevertheless she tried quietly calling their names: nothing. No she'd have to get out of this herself.

Amy was just about to step out of the doorway when some instinct told her to stay put for just a little longer. Almost at once she heard the sound of somebody walking along the street, or rather more than one somebody. A few moments later two men passed by, strolling along as if in no particular hurry to get anywhere.

The men were tall, well dressed and well muscled. They looked human but that didn't mean anything. If they were human they were probably well armed and working for somebody. But they could be vampires or something worse. It was unlikely that they were locals. They were not chatting the way two casual walkers would do. On the contrary their attention was directed to scanning the surrounding area as they walked along.

All of the human inhabitants of Sunnydale seemed to be keeping out of the way. Either they had been warned or the good old Sunnydale radar was back working again. All the locals might be aware of would be a general feeling that it was a good night to stay home. I wonder if that sort of thing is controlled by a higher power thought Amy. Does somebody broadcast some sort of subliminal message as a sort of damage limitation?

The two men stopped a little down the street, muttered a few words to each other and then came back the way they had come. Once again they seemed to be in no particular hurry. Quite obviously they were patrolling the neighbourhood. Probably Wolfram and Hart goons thought Amy as she watched them pass back up the street. Clearly they were not aware of her and they didn't seem to be searching for her so they were probably not the people tracking her.

What to do? She was now having second thoughts about heading for the Magic Box. It had various magic protections but anybody who knew who she was would know of her connection to the shop. They would also have her address and by now might have staked out both places. They might be waiting for her to show before picking her up for questioning.

No, Amy decided, I need a new plan. Not the shop and not home. I'll have to forget about the oracle spell. The only way I'll be safe is if I leave town quickly or somehow get back into the Slayer HQ. But the HQ was certainly being closely watched.

In this state of mind all of Amy's senses were heightened to fever pitch. Thus as she pondered what to do she became aware of a new noise in the neighbourhood, a sort of quiet shuffling by somebody or something that did not want to be noticed. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, stop. Shuffle, Shuffle, shuffle, stop. Yes, it was definitely getting closer. Whatever it is, when it gets here I should be somewhere else she thought.

Amy turned and tried to open the shop door behind her only to find it locked, which was what she had expected. But opening a locked door was child's play for a witch like Amy and a moment later she was inside the darkened premises, relocking the door behind her. She was now inside a small dress shop, a shop long familiar to her in small town Sunnydale.

Amy went straight to the back of the shop and opened the internal door leading to the back room. She did a quick check and found the back door where she expected it to be. She unlocked it ready for a quick getaway into the alleyway at the rear and then returned to the doorway leading back into the main shop and waited.

With a good view of the front door, Amy stood in the dark intending to see what happened next. If she felt threatened she would leave immediately and in a real emergency she had her teleport spell ready. But it would have to be an emergency because the spell drained her and left her exhausted for some time afterwards.

A crouched over figure shuffled along the pavement in front of the shop. It was a bulky figure and wearing a heavy overcoat despite the warm California evening. The coat was pulled up to conceal the head of the figure, assuming it had a head of course. It did not pause at the shop entrance but continued along the road and Amy briefly breathed a little more easily. But her relief was short lived because moments later the figure returned and entered the doorway.

It's definitely tracking me thought Amy. It's as if it's caught my scent. It might be working for somebody or it might be some sort of a demon hunting for prey. I'm not gonna let it get anywhere near me.

As she thought this the figure rattled the relocked front door to see if it would open and lifted its head to peer within. Two bright fiery red eyes blazed at her. She could see nothing else of the creature because the eyes seemed to be set in a surrounding darkness. Amy was now certain that whatever it was it was not human and was likely to be very dangerous.

At that moment the door crashed open. The creature had broken it apart by brute force. That was enough for Amy. She wasn't a Slayer. Fighting demons on her own was not her business so it was time to go. She was leaving right now and she did not intend to run down the road with that thing chasing her. She stepped into the back room and immediately set off her teleport spell.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The lights of the orb cleared to reveal three of the Halliwell sisters: Prue, Phoebe and Paige. Prue and Phoebe stepped away from their orbing sister.

"OK." said Paige. "I'll be back when I've dropped off Piper so she can tell the others about that visit from Glory."

"Tell them all not to take too long," said Phoebe. "That last vision was crystal clear. We don't have much time. We've got to leave this world as soon as we can."

The sisters had arrived at the military base where Lissie had been taken in order to activate the Key well away from other sources of magic. To avoid accidentally interfering with anything that Lissie was doing the three sisters had landed outside the front gate of the compound. But that wasn't a problem since they now had valid Kallistian identity cards which Prue and Phoebe showed to the guards on the gate as Paige orbed away.

A few minutes later the sisters arrived at the building to which they had been directed, the building where Lissie was working on the Key. Just inside the door they found Faith, sat on a chair and flipping through an illustrated magazine. Drusilla was dozing on a chair further along the corridor. She opened her eyes as the others entered.

"So how's it going?" Prue asked Faith. "Is the Key ready yet because we're running out of time?"

"No idea," said Faith. "We keep hearing noises from inside," she added nodding in the direction of the door at the end of the corridor. "But every time we go look she tells us to get out."

"She was having some trouble with the Key," said Drusilla. "Something about it being charged up already. But she doesn't want our help."

"Let's have another look," said Prue walking towards the door. "See if anything's changed."

"We've all got to get to the Gate as soon as we can," said Phoebe. "There's a chance they'll be able to get it working. But even if they don't we've all got to get off planet somehow, as soon as we can or we might be stuck here permanently. I've had a couple of vision warnings about that."

"So what if they can't get the Gate working?" asked Faith. "Time-travel again? Do we go back to when the Gate was working?"

"No, that would be very risky," replied Prue. "We don't seem to have changed the future on our last trip but we should avoid time travelling any more than we absolutely have to."

"Sam and Tara have a plan to get the Gate working. But if it doesn't work and we can't use the Gate the idea is we all combine our power and try to open a magic portal. If that doesn't work we will have to leave through the local Hellmouth and hope Tara will be able to lead us back home that way," said Phoebe. "But whatever happens we can't stay on this world much longer."

Prue led the way into the room where Lissie was working and stopped just inside the door. The others followed her in and were as surprised as Prue by what they saw.

Lissie was lying on her back on the floor, apparently asleep. But she was not alone. There were five other young women in the room and they were also lying on the floor, apparently asleep. All five had a strong resemblance to Lissie and Dawn although Dawn wasn't one of them.

The six women were in an approximate circle, their feet towards the center. And right in the middle of that circle was something floating about a foot off the floor and giving off a strong green glow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's it, done! Nobody gets in and nobody gets out," said Lilah as she put her cellphone away. "The town is now isolated."

"We'll we've done that before," said Maybourne. "It didn't last long then so what makes you think it'll be any better this time?"

"We were only applying pressure that time," said Lilah. "This time we're gonna keep the barriers up until this business is all over. And these barriers are a lot stronger."

"Last time you bugged out when the General turned up," said Maybourne. "What will you do if he turns up again with a small army?"

"He'll need more than a small army," said Lilah. "My people have got the area around the Slayer building shut down. But outside that there are all sorts of demons, vampires and monsters gathering. Believe me we're better prepared this time."

"Even if he flies in?" asked Maybourne, still sceptical. "Didn't he use helicopters last time?"

"Even if he flies in," confirmed Lilah. "Trust me."

Maybourne wasn't convinced but he said nothing more. He had made his own security arrangements without consulting Lilah. The General should not be given a chance to interfere this time.

"And when you take over that building I get the Stargate," said Maybourne turning his attention back to the Slayer HQ across the road. I wonder if she's going to keep her word on that he thought. Trust her? Oh yeah.

"That's the deal," said Lilah. "You get the Stargate, we get everything else, all the mystic and magic stuff. That sort of stuff's no good to you anyway." Lilah made no mention of opening a Hellmouth. Maybourne wouldn't understand and it just might make him worried about what would happen to the precious Stargate.

"What about that woman who left the building a while ago. Have you picked her up yet?" asked Maybourne. He had also given orders for the woman to be picked up and questioned by his people but she had managed to somehow disappear.

"That's Amy Madison, and no we've not picked her up yet. But it doesn't matter," said Lilah. "She can't get back into the building and she was the only witch they had left."

"Not even if she's one of those people who can teleport?" asked Maybourne.

"You don't think we've covered that? Please!" said Lilah. "Amy's not the strongest witch they've got. The power we've got focused in this area, there's nobody who'll be able to teleport in or out of that building, certainly not a witch like Madison. And if she tries to leave town she doesn't have the power to go far. Believe me, we'll pick her up before long."

Maybourne did not ask about the more mundane ways of communicating with the outside world. It was he who had made the arrangements to once more block off all electronic communication between the area of the Slayer HQ and the outside world.

"So what next?" asked Maybourne. "They keep stalling. Do you really think they're gonna let your people in now? Now that they don't have even one witch to combat whatever it is your people are planning to do. Are you going to break in or just keep sitting here?"

"It'll be difficult with the protections they have in place but yes, if we have to break in then we'll break in," said Lilah. "But we might not need to. I have it on good authority things are going to get a lot worse just about everywhere in the near future. If they don't let my magic users inside they'll soon have that building falling down on their heads."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The rush was unexpected. It should not have taken them by surprise because they were all meant to be guarding the open Hellmouth. However everybody was debating what was going to happen next so nobody was paying proper attention when the demons started coming up out of the hole leading down into the Hell Dimension.

The saving factor was the large number of experienced demon fighters present, all of whom were able to react quickly to the unexpected. So it was that the demons, seemingly triumphant in being able to reach the upper world so easily and in large numbers, found themselves faced with savage attacks from the slayers Buffy and Kennedy as well as from Angel and Connor.

Both slayers were carrying swords and soon demon heads and large amounts of green ick were flying around the cellar. Connor was also armed and began using his knives to good effect. Angel used his speed and strength to deliver killing blows while at the same time trying the almost impossible feat of watching out for both Connor and Buffy.

Almost as quick to respond but without the benefit of superhuman reflexes, Xander, Wesley and Gwen got themselves involved, but in a more defensive way by providing a shield for the witches to give them a few moments breathing space. Willow, Cordelia and Anya linked hands ready to blast the demons only to find that they didn't need to do so.

Suddenly demons started exploding into nothingness in all directions. Piper had been orbed in by Paige. As quickly as it had begun the life and death struggle was over. Some of the last demons standing tried to make it back down the Hellmouth but none of them made it. Piper then went around the area cleaning up by destroying the bodies of the demons killed by the others.

"Well that does it," said Willow. "We can't just leave this Hellmouth open any longer. We've got to shut it down now." As she spoke Willow became aware of a familiar presence, a much loved presence, arriving behind her by orb.

Willow turned with a big smile ready to welcome Tara back with her number one hug. But her partner was not alone. She had orbed in two Kallistien witches and was just disengaging from them. But Tara had arrived in time to hear what Willow had just said.

"I'm afraid we can't shut it down now," said Tara. "We've got to leave. We've got to leave right now and leave the Kallistians to deal with this. That's what these witches will be doing. They know how to place a temporary block which should hold until the Central Coven can gather and do something permanent."

"Before they do anything there's something you and they need to know," said Piper.


	62. A Little Clearer

**Chapter Sixty Two: A Little Clearer**

Everything in the SGC was unusually quiet. Well not so unusual really because it was some time since the Stargate had been working. General Hammond had made sure that a proper level of alert was maintained but the usual hustle and bustle of SG teams coming and going had come to a halt. The SG teams which had been on Earth when the shutdown came were mostly off base at the moment and so were a lot of the back up staff.

The General had taken the opportunity to catch up on his paper work but even that was now up to date. It was too early to have heard back from the space ships which had been sent out to re-establish contact with the offworld bases. That left General Hammond only one thing in his in-tray: worry.

Not for the first time he told himself there was no point in worrying about those who were stranded off world like SG-1. Nobody would yet be desperate for supplies on the uninhabited worlds. And as for SG-1, well he'd been through similar uncertainties many times before and they had always come through. No, his worries were all back here on Earth.

The General had already heard the first whispers of what would eventually become a chorus of shouts if things didn't change: What was the point of sinking so much money and resources into a project which no longer worked? Hammond's main problems were, as so often before, all domestic and political. Of course they came from the usual sources.

Stage two would soon start. There would be 'suggestions' that the current SG command had messed things up in some way and a change of regime would 'sort things out' and provide a 'new direction'. That was the traditional military and political way of doing things anyway.

If the Army or in this case the Air Force lost a battle they usually sacked the General in charge. It might be the General's fault, it might not, but hey, it'll make everybody feel better. It'll make everybody think something is being done, rather like appointing a new coach at a football team. The new appointee might be better, or he might not. But everybody would have to watch their backs for a while, especially as a new chief would bring in quite a few of his own people.

At that moment Hammond's musing was interrupted by the phone on his desk ringing. It was Sergeant Davis. The General listened to the message before replying: "In the Gate Room...? You've called Doctor Frasier...? OK, I'll see her in the Infirmary."

The General put the phone down and left the room. He actually arrived in the Infirmary before the doctor but she was there a few moments later along with a stretcher team who had care of an unconscious woman. They placed the woman onto a bed and the General waited until the doctor carried out her examination.

The call from Sergeant Davis had informed the General of the sudden appearance of the woman in the Gate Room. No sooner had she materialised than she had collapsed before uttering a word. Finally the doctor walked over to the General to report.

"She just materialised in the Gate room," said Frasier. "She didn't come through the Gate, she just appeared in the room from nowhere. I'm afraid she's not carrying any ID."

"That's alright, I know who she is," said Hammond. "Or rather I know where she comes from. I've met her before but I don't remember her name. We should have her on record somewhere because she visited the SGC a few days ago."

"So she's not from off world?" asked Frasier. "She does seem to be completely human."

"No, she's not from off world," said Hammond. "She's one of the people I saw when I was in Sunnydale. One of the people who have the other Stargate in their house. Is she going to be alright?"

"So far I can't find anything wrong with her," said Frasier. "I have to do some more tests. But if I had to guess I'd say she's just exhausted. I suppose teleportation takes it out of you."

"How long before she wakes up?" asked Hammond.

"It could be several hours, maybe even a couple of days," said Fraiser. "Unless we're dealing with some sort of magic affect in which case your guess is as good as mine."

"Keep me informed," ordered Hammond. "I need to contact our people in Sunnydale."

General Hammond turned to go and do just that but as he did so the alarm sounded followed by the familiar announcement: "Unscheduled Offworld Activation!" Somebody had found a way to get the Stargate to work.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nobody had any idea what had happened, not Lissie, not the other Dawn look-alikes and certainly not anybody else. The best anybody could come up with was the Key was acting very strangely and presumably had something to do with what was going on. So far as anybody could tell only those who were Keepers of the Key had been affected.

But then Prue had had a thought: "This can't be a co-incidence," she said. "Tara has told us the universe or rather the Multiverse, is being bent out of shape at the moment. This marvellous Key is independent of time and space so it must be linked to the Multiverse in some way. I bet the Key is misbehaving because of what's happening to the universe as a whole. The Multiverse isn't working properly so the Key's not working properly either."

"So until we get home and straighten everything out, things won't get back to normal," said Phoebe. "Well that figures. All we've got to do then is put all the universes back into their proper shapes. Why do they always give us the easy jobs?"

"I think something else is going on," said Faith who was standing next to the sisters, like them watching the rather animated discussion going on between the Dawn look-alikes. "Whatever Tara thinks I can't believe what we did back in Sunnydale a few months ago is behind all this. Come on, think about it. Hellmouths have been opening and closing for a long time. Why should one Hellmouth in one little town on one small planet in one of many universes cause everything to go kablooey?"

"One little pressure valve seizing up can cause a whole engine or a whole ship to blow up," said Drusilla. "Maybe that's what's happening now."

"Maybe," said Faith, still not convinced. "Or maybe there are some terrorists out there somewhere who are making it look like that. Maybe Wolfram and Hart or a few of their friends are playing us. It wouldn't be the first time."

"But Tara said her elders had checked it out," said Phoebe.

"Hah, you've been watching too many old movies," said Faith. "The good guys aren't always smarter than the bad guys. Not in real life. Anyway you know more about those guys upstairs than I do. Do they always get it right?"

Prue and Phoebe exchanged glances.

"Not every time no," said Prue.

"So there may be more going on than even they know about," said Faith. "And anyway if the elders are some sort of angel what about fallen angels? Don't those guys sometimes change sides? Trust nobody, that's my motto, not even if they've got wings."

"You might be right but whatever happens we've got to leave soon anyway," said Prue. "If the Key is malfunctioning I don't think there's anything we can do about it here. If Lissie doesn't understand it, and she comes from a long line of keepers, what chance have we got of figuring it out before we have to leave? And if everything's connected then the sooner we get back home and sort things out there the sooner things will return to normal everywhere."

The discussion between Lissie and the other Dawn look-alikes was now becoming even more animated. Several were trying to speak at the same time and there was a lot of arm waving going on. Clearly they had not yet reached an agreement about what to do next. The Key itself was no longer visible. The green glow had quickly faded soon after the Earth women had entered the room. It had reappeared once a short time later when yet another Keeper had materialised but it had then faded again.

At that moment Paige orbed into the room. She wasn't alone. She had brought a Kallistien witch with her. "Time to go," she announced. "We've just run out of time."

"So we just leave them to get on with it?" asked Faith.

"It's their planet," said Phoebe shrugging. "When they all get together they've probably got more magic power that we do."

"Ninnay here will be the liaison between the Keepers and the Kallistian Central Coven," said Paige. "She'll keep an eye on things here. But we've got to go."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In the end it all happened in a rush. Sam finally succeeded in dialling up a connection to the SGC Stargate. At first she had insisted on trying to recalibrate the Stargate settings without any magical assistance from Tara. But after several failed attempts she had to concede that she was just guessing as to the right settings and time was moving on. She therefore agreed that Tara should carry out a good luck spell before she tried again.

Thus it was that Sam's next attempt, the successful attempt, to recalibrate and then dial home, was carried out while she, Tara and the Stargate were contained within one of Tara's magic circles and after a really very simply good luck incantation.

If Sam had not witnessed the all too real impact of magic spells before she would have put the whole thing down to chance and not believed that Tara's spell had played any part. After all SG-1 had beaten the odds any number of times in the past. But, she conceded to herself, maybe this time they wouldn't have made it without the magical help.

Sam was unsure as to how long the connection would last. If the universe continued to distort, the connection could be broken at any moment. Yes, she would then try to get another connection but by her calculations there would come a point, sooner or later, when the distortion was so bad the Gate network would simply no longer work at all. The physical universe in which the Gate network was situated, would have changed too much.

Sam had explained all this to Jack, Tara and Daniel as she worked: "As soon as I get a connection, if I get a connection, everybody has to go through as quickly as they can. This might be a one shot deal so anybody who misses out might be stuck here permanently. You've got to round everybody up and get them here now."

Ideally everybody would have been at the Gate ready to go through it as soon as it was open. But that's not the way things worked out. People were still scattered all over. Most of the SGC people were present but Teal'c and the shuttle crews were still on their way. Sam could have delayed what she was doing until everybody was present but that would risk not ever being able to get a connection at all. Jack had agreed that she should press ahead. Better that somebody gets away than nobody does they had reasoned.

As the wave of the wormhole washed out from the Gate Jack sent the SG-1 ID signal to the SGC to make sure that the iris was opened. Meanwhile Tara had already orbed away to help round up everybody. Fortunately she arrived at the hotel Hellmouth just after Paige arrived so she was able to get Paige's help in orbing everybody to the Gate. From then on everybody had been quickly gathered up by the Whitelighters shuttling to and from the Gate to get everyone there with the least possible delay.

Jack sent Daniel through first together with the SGC personnel gathered at the Gate. As others arrived they were sent through with Jack and Sam staying until the end. Willow too insisted on remaining behind until Tara had completed her part of the in-gathering. Together they joined Jack and Sam as the last group to enter the Gate.

The SG people left their communications equipment behind for the Kallistians to use. The officer commanding the Kallistien unit that had been detailed to guard the Gate watched the final group of Earth people leave following which the connection was broken. In all it had taken just over a half hour. The officer now radioed a message through to the Witch HQ informing them that all of the Earth people had left. The only thing now stopping the Kallistians from carrying out the Goa'uld expulsion spell was the go ahead from the Keepers that they could activate the Key appropriately.

A figure in the darkness of a nearby alleyway had also watched the entire departure process. When the exodus was complete and the wormhole connection had closed the woman turned away, unconcerned about the darkness and walked slowly away deep in thought.

"I wouldn't if I were you," said a female voice from behind her.

Glory turned to see that she had once again been joined by her look-alike. She smiled. "I thought you were me?" she asked.

The other Glory smiled back with exactly the same smile. "Not exactly," said the other Glory. "There are a multitude of us in different parts of the Multiverse but we're all a little different."

"So how different are you?" asked the first Glory. "And why shouldn't I take this Gate? I think it'll be very useful."

"It won't work back in your world," said the other Glory. "It's been tried. The Stargates never work in a Hell Dimension. And if you're planning on staying here you might as well leave it where it is."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The latest tremor was the strongest so far and for the first time pieces of furniture toppled over. But there was no visible damage to the building itself. In the road outside the Sunnydale Slayer HQ the damage was more dramatic as a line of cracks opened up all along the street and an old tree on the corner crashed to the ground.

Back inside the building Lilah used the latest bout of shaking to push her agenda: "Now will you believe me?" she asked. "We're running out of time. You've got to let my people in here to help open up the new Hellmouth. Much more of this and we'll all be dead."

Lilah had come to the Slayer HQ after the start of the latest series of quakes. She had explained that her people were all ready. What was needed was for the Whitelighters and others in the Slayer HQ to join in the ritual for opening the Hellmouth. Now was the time she insisted.

"Let's get one thing straight," said Gunn. "We don't trust you. We'll never trust you. You've done something with Amy. She should have been back long before now. And you've blocked off the town from all contact with the outside world."

"I haven't done anything with Amy," protested Lilah. I would have done she thought but I can't find her. "And I haven't cut contact with the outside world. That's just part of the set up for what we've got to do. It's part of what's happening, not something that I've done. I wouldn't know how to stop Whitelighters doing whatever it is they do."

The second protest was a lie. Lilah's people and her allies had indeed isolated the town, but Gunn and the others didn't need to know that. Both sides needed to have representatives take part in the Hellmouth opening ritual if it was going to work properly. But keeping the present occupants of the HQ from receiving any magical or other help would allow Lilah and her people to take the lead and keep the upper hand. Yes, the Hellmouth would be opened either way but what came next was even more important.

"You don't think I'm causing these quakes as well do you?" continued Lilah sarcastically. If I could do something like that I wouldn't have had so much trouble dealing with you people the past few years."

"Go and get your people," said Fred. "While you're doing that we'll decide whether to let you in. But don't even think of forcing your way in. You wouldn't make it. This place has got protections you couldn't even imagine and Willow would love for someone to try them out."

She's got to take that seriously thought Fred. Everybody knows how powerful Willow is. Anyway if half of what Willow said about the magical defences is true we don't have to worry about them breaking in.

Gunn showed Lilah out of the door and watched her walk down the path before closing the door and returning to the others in the main lounge.

"I vote we don't let them in," said Gunn. "Not even if this place falls down on our heads."

"Which it might do any time now," said Lorne as yet another quake, this one a minor one, rumbled around them.

"Nothing comes free," said Wood. "Every time one of those quakes hits there are people out there dying and if they keep getting bigger there will be a lot of deaths. Even if we do nothing we're playing God with peoples lives. I don't think we should do that."

Leo and Jenny were still present in the HQ. When Amy did not return they had tried to orb out to find her only to find that something was blocking their orbing. But they quite deliberately took no part in the debate over what to do. That had to be a decision made by mortals. And as the discussion went on it soon became clear what they would reluctantly decide.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dawn's reception in her new location was much less friendly that after her first 'jump'. She now found herself locked up in the local jail due to the insistence of the young man that Dawn had done something to his girlfriend.

Dawn's attempt to explain what had happened was doomed from the start since she really had no idea what was going on herself. She just succeeded in convincing the local constables that she was trying to hide something, so in the time tested manner of law enforcement officials everywhere they had locked her up until somebody could sort things out.

At the moment Dawn was stood at the back of the cell, looking out the window through the bars at the moonlight streaming down from the moons above. Some of the local insect life in the grass and trees outside was clicking furiously away but it seemed to be perfectly normal for the time and place since it didn't bother any of the locals.

"I'm Vala. Who are you and why are you in here?" asked the other woman sharing the cell with her. The black haired woman was aged perhaps in her late twenties and was wearing a long mainly dark blue dress. She was sat on the only chair in the room and seemed to be totally relaxed. It was the first word either woman had uttered since Dawn had been shown into the cell a few minutes before.

Dawn turned and looked at the woman. "I'm Dawn. It's all a mistake," she said. "I haven't done anything. I'm just lost and a long way from home." As she spoke Dawn wondered if the woman was really another prisoner or whether she was a police officer who was there to question her. "Who are you and why are you here?"

"I'm Vala. I'm like you. I'm a stranger around here. You may have noticed these people don't like strangers," said Vala, intentionally not answering the second question. "You can't be further from home than I am. Not unless you're one of those people who came through the Stargate before it stopped working."

"The Stargate!" said Dawn. "You know about the Stargate? So you know all about the Goa'uld and all that?" Have I returned to where I started wondered Dawn. Am I back in present day Kallistien?

"Everybody on this planet knows about the Stargate," said the woman. "But you're the first person I've met who knows anything about the Goa'uld."

"On this planet?" said Dawn. "You mean you come from another planet? So do I. I did come through the Stargate, or a Stargate. But what do you mean about the Goa'uld? They've been trying to conquer this planet. You must know that."

"Not this planet," said Vala. "You're getting your planets mixed up. The Goa'uld have been to a lot of places but as far as I can tell nobody around here knows anything about them."

So I'm still in the past thought Dawn. But wait a minute if I'm still in the past how come the Stargate's working or was working before it stopped? They didn't know anything about the Stargate in the last place. But I can't be in the future, I can't believe they'd have forgotten about the Goa'uld. Could I be in the past but not so far in the past or something?

So how does everybody know about the Stargate?" asked Dawn. "When did they get it working? And why has it stopped?"

"I don't know," said Vala. "Like I said I'm a stranger here myself. I don't know how long it's been working nor why it's stopped. I suppose people know about it from the radio or the newspapers. That's how they get most of their news around here."

"But the Kallistians don't have radio, or they didn't until recently when people from my planet brought some equipment with them to help fight the Goa'uld," said Dawn.

"And your planet is?" asked Vala.

"Earth," said Dawn. "When I came to Kallistien it was being attacked by the Goa'uld."

"Earth was destroyed by the Goa'uld two years ago," said Vala. "But they've never attacked Kallistien."

"That's ridiculous," said Dawn after a shocked pause. "How do you know that? That can't be true." Have I travelled into the future she wondered. Can I go back and change things for the better?

"I know because I used to be a Goa'uld," said Vala. "Or rather I used to have one inside me."


	63. Strategic Moves

**Chapter Sixty Three: Strategic Moves**

As a Whitelighter Tara was responsible for helping a group of witches. Willow, Cordelia and Anya had just returned through the Stargate from Kallistien so Tara didn't need to check up on them. But Tara didn't know what had been happening to Amy while she had been gone so immediately on coming through the Gate back to Earth she extended her Whitelighter senses to make contact.

Tara was surprised to discover a contact nearby. So nearby in fact that Tara decided that Amy must also be inside the SGC even though she had definitely not got there by passing through the Gate with everybody else.

The Gate-room, the nearby corridors, pretty well the whole SGC complex was now filled with the people who had just hurried through the Gate. This meant that the crowding and confusion was such that it would be some time before Tara would be able to talk to anybody in charge in order to find Amy.

Since her senses told her all was not well with Amy, Tara decided not to use mundane methods but to go straight to Amy using her Whitelighter powers. She decided it was OK to orb straight there. It was not as if she needed to keep her Whitelighter powers a secret from the people surrounding her.

Like several of the people new to the SGC Willow, after passing through the Stargate, was stood in the Gate-room, waiting for the traffic to clear, looking around and taking stock. Her musing and brief thoughts that she would like to find out about how the Stargates worked were cut short by Tara grabbing her hand.

"I've got to go see Amy right now," said Tara. "Want to come?"

Willow smiled. "I told you. No more orbing away without me, not unless you've got absolutely no choice. Let's go."

Tara orbed and the two witches found themselves in the SGC Infirmary. Since things had been so quiet lately the unconscious Amy in a bed nearby was the only patient there and for the moment there were no nurses or doctors in sight.

"We're still in the SGC," said Tara walking over to the bed and looking down at the sleeping witch. "Let's find out why Amy's here. I think she would benefit from my help."

"If you heal whatever it is that's put her in this hospital maybe she'll be able to bring us up to date with what's happening in Sunnydale," said Willow.

But before Tara could start using her healing power the two women were interrupted by a woman's voice from behind them:

"So just where did you come from and are you friend or foe?"

Willow and Tara turned to find a beautiful woman in a white hospital coat, probably a doctor, looking at them. The Infirmary had not been left unattended after all. Behind the woman in the doorway was an armed sentry pointing a gun at them. Willow tensed ready to respond but Tara stepped in front of her partner before Willow had a chance to do anything. Tara knew how Willow felt about guns and didn't want her to do something she might regret.

"We're friends of Amy," said Tara. "We've just come back from Kallistien with all the others. Your Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter will vouch for us."

Doctor Fraiser looked hard at Tara. There was something about her that inspired trust. Oh to hell with it thought the doctor. If they can just appear and disappear whenever they want there's nothing I can do to stop them. She turned and signalled the sentry to relax.

"How did Amy get here?" asked Tara turning back to the bed.

"She appeared a little while ago out of nowhere, just like you. But she collapsed straight away and hasn't woken up yet," said Doctor Fraiser. "I can't find anything wrong with her. I think she's just exhausted."

"If she teleported all the way from Sunnydale no wonder she collapsed," said Willow carefully watching the armed guard until he left the room. "I didn't think she was strong enough to do that." All the way from California to Colorado? I don't know if I'm strong enough to do that on my own she suddenly thought.

"Maybe it was an emergency and she went beyond anything she's done before," said Tara. "That can happen in certain circumstances. Let's find out."

Tara had now turned back to the sleeping patient. She stretched out her right hand and held it above Amy's head. A glow appeared briefly between Tara's hand and Amy's head, intensified and then faded away. Almost immediately after the glow faded Amy stirred and opened her eyes. She smiled as she recognised Tara and Willow standing over her.

"Hey, the A Team's back," she said and then frowned and looked around. "Or am I where you guys went? Where am I?"

As Tara explained to Amy where she was and what she, Willow and the others had been doing Doctor Fraiser tapped Willow on the arm and drew her away to ask some questions.

"What your friend just did..." began Fraiser.

"That's Tara. I'm Willow," said Willow.

"That... whatever it was she just did. That was healing right, sort of laying on of hands, healing by magic that sort of thing?" asked Fraiser.

"Uh huh, sort of," agreed Willow nodding.

"I'm a doctor," said Fraiser. "Doctor Fraiser. Is there some way to learn that, bottle it or something because it would be very useful around here. Well very useful just about everywhere of course."

"Uh no, it's a gift," said Willow. "It's uh very rare. Tara does what she can but she has to follow all sorts of rules. If she broke them she wouldn't be able to do it at all. And if it became generally known what she could do it would cause more harm than good."

"But how could that cause harm..." began Frasier only to be interrupted by Willow.

"I need to hear what Amy's saying," said Willow deliberately cutting a difficult conversation short. She and Tara had had long conversations on this very subject.

Not going from hospital to hospital and healing all the sick and injured she possibly could was one of the hardest things about being a Whitelighter, Tara had explained. But she had been convinced by the elders that large scale interference by supernatural beings in the mortal realm would not be a good thing. It was not why she had been made a Whitelighter and in any event it would allow the demon realms to become more active on Earth.

"It's the same reason why powerful demons and warlocks don't walk up and down the street killing people openly all the time," Tara had explained. "If either side distorts the balance too much or too openly, it's the other side which benefits."

Willow returned her attention back to what Amy was saying: "But I only intended to teleport back to the Gate in the Slayer HQ," she said. "How did I end up here?"

"Just a moment," said Tara who then closed her eyes and concentrated for a few moments while everybody else looked at her.

"I'm blocked off. The Sunnydale HQ has been blocked off in some way. I can't orb there and I can't detect the other Whitelighters," she said to Amy. "I expect your attempt to teleport there was blocked as well so you sort of 'bounced' here to the other Stargate."

"There's an SGC team in Sunnydale, in your Sunnydale HQ helping your people guard the other Gate," said Fraiser. "I'll take you to see the General. He might be able to contact them and find out what's happening."

"I don't think Lilah Morgan would have overlooked that," said Amy. "I bet she's blocked their communications as well. She'll be behind all this."

"Lilah Morgan? She's in Sunnydale," asked Willow.

"Oh yeah," said Amy. "She and her goons are camped out there."

On the way to find the General Amy brought the others up to date on what had been happening in Sunnydale.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The circle was formed. All of the strongest Kallistien witches were present which meant it was a large circle. Of necessity the ceremony was outdoors, in a woodland clearing just outside the military base where Lissie had worked on the Key. Within the circle were Lissie and the other Keepers who had arrived on the planet over the past few hours by unknown means. They formed an inner circle of their own.

Inside the circle of keepers was the Key, or at least a visible aspect of the Key. It floated at head height at the very center of the gathering. It looked something like a large brightly glowing emerald green jewel, but since it was too bright to look at closely nobody could be quite sure of its exact shape.

Lissie and the other keepers had finally decided that the only way they had of getting home and resuming their normal lives would be if they were able to establish control of the Key. But first everybody had agreed to use the Key to deal with the Goa'uld fleet. Even though they all came from different times and places and even universes they were all Kallistians. They all wanted their world to be made permanently safe from the alien attack.

Soon after the Earth people had left Lissie had announced to the witches that she and her fellow keepers were now as ready as they were ever likely to be. The witch Ninnay had contacted the Central Coven and arranged for everybody to gather in the woods ready to carry out the expulsion ceremony.

Everybody knew the Goa'uld fleet would soon be back. Their progress was being monitored by a combination of magic powers and the equipment left behind by the Earth people. It was therefore imperative that the magic of the Key be used as soon as possible, preferably before the Goa'uld landed another wave of troops or decided to bombard the planet.

As well as the witches and keepers taking part in the ceremony there were a number of other people watching. The spectators included a unit of soldiers from the base to provide some protection against mundane attacks. Other units were on call nearby. There were also a number of junior witches who would not take part in the ceremony but who were tasked with providing magical protection to the area. Masquerading amongst the latter was a young looking blond haired woman.

"Well here you are again," said Glory to the woman she found leaning on a tree and taking in everything that was going on in front of her. "Do you plan on more meddling or are you leaving when this is done?"

"You've got me confused with somebody else," said the other Glory turning and smiling. "I haven't done any meddling. But I'm pretty good at meddling so I can do some if you want."

"You don't call opening a Hellgate in somebody else's universe meddling?" said Glory.

"Not me," said the other Glory. "I expect it was one of them," she added pointing to a group of three other Glorys stood talking in the trees a little way away.

"What!" said Glory. "How many of you... How many of me are there? This is ridiculous."

The other Glory shrugged. "It's a big Multiverse. I expect there are an infinite number of us," she said. "And most of us have enough power and knowledge to discover the focus of what is causing all of the upset in the various universes, so we're here to make sure everything is properly put back together again and in a manner that doesn't hurt us."

"It's the reopening of the Hellmouth back on Earth that's meant to straighten everything out," said Glory. "The Earth in this universe that is. That's the focus. Shouldn't you all be there?"

"Oh dear, you are out of the loop aren't you," said the other Glory. "That's just another symptom, not the real cause."

"So what is the real cause," asked Glory glaring at her look-alike, annoyed that others seemed to know more than she did about what was going on.

The other Glory looked straight at her and smiled. "You are. Or rather we are," she said.

"Huh?" responded Glory. "And just what do you mean by that?"

"You remember using the Key to open up the portals between worlds?" asked the other Glory.

"You mean back on Earth in Sunnydale up on the tower?" asked Glory.

"Uh huh," replied the other Glory. "Well a lot of us in many different universes did something similar at exactly the same time. The combination of all that is what, in the course of time, has ending up distorting everything."

"So they don't really need to reopen that Hellmouth back on Earth then?" asked Glory.

"Oh yes they do," replied the other Glory. "But that's only part of the solution."

"And the rest?" asked Glory.

"Well similar openings will be taking place all over the Multiverse. The rest requires the Key," said the other Glory. "That will take center stage as soon as Dawn returns."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lilah Morgan watched as her team of mages set things up in the basement area of the Sunnydale HQ. She and her people had finally been allowed inside so that the Hellmouth opening could be carried out although it was obvious that the decision taken by the present occupants of the HQ had been very grudging and not unanimous.

Colonel Maybourne and two of his NID team had tried to accompany Lilah and the Wolfram and Hart team into the building but they had been refused admittance. Lilah had explained to Maybourne that she could not claim that he and his people were needed to take part in the ceremony so she could not force the issue.

Lilah in reality was not upset that Maybourne was not allowed inside. She did not want him doing anything to mess things up. He and his people were not under her control in the same way as the Wolfram and Hart mages. And since the ceremony and the Hellmouth opening were being carried out in the basement where the Stargate was situated he might have become alarmed about what might happen to the Stargate.

On the other side of the basement Gunn, Fred, Leo, Lorne, Vi, Wood and Jenny were quietly talking:

"So how does this work?" asked Gunn. "We don't have any serious magic users ourselves any more unless Amy turns up. But if Lilah's people could do this on their own they would have done it already. So how do we come into it? We can't add much in the way of magic to the mix. Not unless the Whitelighters use their powers."

Leo shook his head but said nothing. They had already discussed this and the Whitelighters had explained that they could not take part in opening the Hellmouth. This was entirely a matter for mortals.

"Some magic spells can be done by people without magical talent," said Wood. "So long as the right ingredients are present and the right ritual is followed."

"As the representatives of our side you can still take part, even though you're not witches yourselves," said Jenny. "You still provide balance to their side of things."

"You mean they need us just to be here, mouthing whatever words they give us and that's the way it works?" asked Gunn. "Why us? Why not the next bum off the street? If you don't need any talent there are millions of people to choose from. Wolfram and Hart could round up as many as they need."

"Ah, not exactly," said Leo. "The agreement is we cooperate. Their side and our side. You people are representatives of our side, Champions in fact. That's not just a word. You've earned that status by what you've done. And you were part of the group that made sure the old Hellmouth was shut and stayed shut."

"Without at least one of you taking part in the ceremony it won't work," continued Leo. Wolfram and Hart on their own cannot open a new Hellmouth. If it was that easy they'd be doing it all over the place. It needs your participation, your willing participation."

"But without our own magic users present this'll be their spell, not ours," said Fred. "Do we just take it on trust that they're only doing what was agreed and nothing more? We won't really understand what's going on. I've got a bad feeling about this."

"That's the point I was making earlier," said Lorne. "It was always going to be their magic, dark magic. A ritual to open a Hellmouth can only be a dark magic ritual. It's sort of a contradiction to try to use white magic for that. Can't be done."

"So what are you guys saying, we just trust Lilah to do what was agreed. Trust Lilah Morgan and take part in her dark magic spell, give it our seal of approval as it were. You must be joking," said Gunn.

"It's part of the agreement," said Leo. "Our side and theirs. They're just as much bound by it as we are."

"I'll try to break this to you gently," said Lorne. "This is Wolfram and Hart we're dealing with. They're not only lawyers, they're the devil's own attorneys. Weaselling their way under, over and around water tight agreements is how they live. Their reason for existing. We're playing on their turf. I expect they're the ones who invented small print. Sure, they'll follow the letter of the agreement but they'll still look to screw us and probably will, ten different ways without even trying."

"It's not too late to back out, even now," said Leo. "If you all agree not to go through with this..."

As if on cue to remind them of the consequences of doing nothing Leo was interrupted in what he was saying by yet another earth tremor. All activity and conversation in the room stopped for about thirty seconds while the floor shook and there was the sound of falling objects in the rooms above. At last all was quiet once more and the Wolfram and Hart mages continued on with their preparations.

"I think that was the worst yet," said Wood. "I think that's all the answer we need, unless anybody has any other way of stopping that sort of thing?"

Nobody offered any suggestions.

"The time will come when that doesn't stop," said Leo. "That was a bad one but nothing like as bad as it will be if we don't solve this."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The street was dark, or as dark as it ever got in Sunnydale. The street lights were on of course and the area appeared to be deserted as it normally would be in the early hours of the morning. It could have been just another normal night in a small Californian town. Well normal apart from the zig-zag of cracks which had broken up the street as a result of the recent quakes. Although of course even that wasn't exactly unusual in California.

A light appeared at the end of the street and faded to reveal four women. Tara had orbed in with Buffy, Faith and Kennedy to the edge of town.

"That's as close as I can get you," said Tara. "Something's blocking me from orbing any nearer to the Slayer HQ."

"I don't see any barrier," said Kennedy who slowly walked forward a few steps into town with her hand out before stopping. "And I don't feel one either. Looks like you were right when you said we might be able to walk into town from here."

"OK then, we can take it from here," said Buffy to Tara. Tara nodded and disappeared in an orb. She had other things to do in the overall plan.

"Back to the good old days," said Faith as she loosened up by swinging the axe she was holding in her right hand before once more checking the wooden stakes and other weapons she had with her. "A night-time stroll through beautiful downtown Sunnydale with as many vamps and demons as you could wish for."

"Do you think we'll create a big enough stir?" asked Kennedy who was also looking forward to an old fashioned Slayer blitz though town.

"Oh yeah," said Buffy with a smile. "The demon fraternity used to worry about only one Slayer at a time. Well, now they've got three at once. We'll give them something to worry about alright. They won't be able to ignore us."

"Well they've come to town for the Hellmouth," said Faith, grinning just as much as Buffy. "Let's send them all to hell."

The three Slayers now spread out across the road into town ready to make their move:

Faith on the right, Buffy in the center and Kennedy on the left. Buffy looked at her watch. Won't be long now she thought.


	64. Back on the Streets

**Chapter Sixty Four: Back on the Streets**

Dawn didn't think Vala was lying, why should she? But what she had said about Kallistien, this Kallistien, didn't make sense. According to what Vala had said Dawn thought she might be in the future, but if so it was a future with a different past to the one she knew about.

Could it be she had done something in the past to change the future? Or perhaps Faith and the Halliwells had done something in the past to change things around in the present? Have we messed things up between us? Am I to blame for the destruction of the Earth? Is there anything I can do to put things right? There must be something, Dawn told herself. Surely if things have been changed once they can be changed again.

Not for the first time in the past few minutes Dawn shied away from thinking about what the destruction of the Earth meant for the people she knew and loved and all those millions of others. If she could find some way to put things right they would never really have died, the world would not have been destroyed.

Dawn had seen no reason not to tell Vala everything she knew about what was happening. Well everything except about the Key. For the moment Dawn decided to say nothing about that. It was not the sort of thing you told to strangers, no matter how helpful they might be.

The possibility that her actions, however well meant, might have caused the destruction of her home planet naturally distressed Dawn. But Vala was having none of it. She rejected Dawn's attempted explanation.

"I refuse to believe it," said Vala. "I refuse to believe my whole life and all my memories only came about because somebody changed things in the past. That goes against everything I ever learnt about the way the universe works. I've lived my own life up to now. I'm not the creation of somebody messing with history."

Your whole life and memories the creation of somebody else's meddling? Now doesn't that sound familiar thought Dawn. But then again was I really created like that? We only have the word of a dead monk and we all just accepted it was true. But was it? Was it a lie by the monk or was the truth more complicated than even he knew?

But Dawn said nothing of these thoughts aloud. She couldn't without explaining her own background and she wasn't ready for that now. Maybe she never would be ready. Glory had tried to use the power of the Key for her own benefit. Who knew how somebody else might react if they thought Dawn was the way to access so much power. Instead she tried to find out if Vala really did have some idea of what was going on or if she was just objecting in principle.

"Did your understanding of the universe include the reality of witchcraft and time travel?" asked Dawn. "Most scientists and teachers think that's a load of nonsense so they don't allow for it."

"Well I'm not most scientists," said Vala. "I'm quite familiar with witchcraft and time travel, thank you very much," she added.

This last comment was a complete lie but Vala never let the truth stand in the way of impressing the impressionable. Besides Dawn obviously needed cheering up and there was another way of looking at what had happened.

"I don't thing you've changed the future and I don't think you're in a different future," said Vala. "Have you ever heard about the theory of the Multiverse?"

"You mean I'm in another universe, a parallel universe?" asked Dawn. "The Earth that's been destroyed in this universe might not be my Earth?"

"Exactly," said Vala. "And what you think of as time travel might not be time travel at all. When you think you travel in time you might just be going to a different universe that looks like your universe in the past or maybe the future. Those who think that time travel is impossible, might be right."

"I don't know about that," began Dawn. "I'm pretty sure time travel, real time travel is possible. I know some people who have done it."

"OK, fair enough, but that doesn't mean you've travelled in time," said Vala. "It doesn't mean you've changed your own future. You might..."

At that moment the two women were interrupted by the opening of the cell door and the entry of a police officer.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So who do you think it was," asked Gwen. "The Governor or somebody even higher up?"

Kate shrugged. "I don't think it was anybody as visible as that. People in positions like that are either told nothing or they make it clear they want to know nothing about things like this," she said. "My bet is some high government flunky or secret service chief. Some sort of official unofficial agency that knows about demons and such like. There was a military unit like that in Sunnydale a few years ago according to what I've heard."

Gwen and Kate were talking about why the Sunnydale police force had been ordered off the street and told to take no action that night whatever happened. The orders had come from the mayor and the police chief but Kate knew they had not originated with them.

Everybody on a lower level had been told that the recent quakes were building up to a really big one. The police and other services, everybody at all if possible, should stay at home and out of the way until they received orders about what to do.

For those who worked out the illogic of having everybody inside buildings which might be shaken down on top of them, there was a second cover story which was going around in the form of a rumour. The word was that it was all a matter of national security and involved terrorists and maybe UFO's.

Kate Lockley, who was now a lieutenant in the Sunnydale Police, had explained all this to Gwen who had arrived at her door earlier that evening. Kate and Gwen were old acquaintances from when they were both in Los Angeles. Gwen had explained why she needed Kate's help. Kate was now driving the two of them across town.

"I happen to know that at least one Secret Service agency has people on the ground in Sunnydale tonight," said Gwen. "So you're probably not far out."

"Don't tell me, let me guess," said Kate. "Colonel Maybourne and his not so merry men from the NID are back in town."

Gwen nodded and smiled. "Oh yeah, but he's just the front man. I don't think he knows what's really going on. If he did he wouldn't come within miles of this... Don't stop!" she ordered sharply.

A large, solid looking demon-like thing had strolled out into the road in front of them. It was many colours but mainly green and it had a large horn coming out of the top of its head. It leapt at the car but Kate skilfully swerved around it and continued on her way. Gwen put her hand out of the window and gave the creature an electrical blast to discourage it as they went past. Once clear of the creature Kate gave Gwen an inquiring look.

"It'll be taken care of," said Gwen. "Don't worry. That's just part of the riff-raff that's floated into town. The Slayers will take care of that sort of thing."

"They're back?" asked Kate. "The Slayers are back in town? They're not just on the way sometime, somehow?"

"They're here now," said Gwen. "They're ready to go. As soon as we get to the electric station and turn everything off they go into town and take out the demons and the vampires."

"All of them?" asked Kate. "If what you say is right the streets and the sewers will be crawling with all sorts of low-lifes tonight. Even three slayers won't be able to get them all."

"Don't worry. It's not just the slayers," said Gwen. "Anyway once the word goes round that there are three slayers on the hunt a lot of those things will be gone. Most of them don't like a fair fight and they definitely don't like it when they're up against somebody stronger and faster."

Kate continued to drive towards their destination in silence for a few minutes, being careful to keep a close watch for anything or anybody dangerous before she spoke up again:

"I get that you want to turn off all the electricity," said Kate. "But won't the darkness make it easier for the demons and vampires?"

"Not really," said Gwen. "The Slayers are used to operating in the dark. They don't need much light and without electric lighting they won't have to worry about being picked off by trigger happy security agents."

"Unless the agents have night vision glasses," said Kate.

Gwen glanced at Kate and shrugged. "We can't think of everything," she said. "I'm sure the Slayers will be able to cope."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Xander was not happy, not happy at all and worst of all there was nothing he could do about it. Normally when Buffy refused his help he tagged along and helped anyway. But he couldn't do that when she was orbed away by Tara. He had had to accept that the Slayers would be doing their own thing and he was stuck with helping out the rest of the crowd.

Xander had never been comfortable working with Angel, or with any vampire come to that. Yes, Angel and Drusilla had souls but Xander had always thought that was something of a technicality. Angel had done all those crimes, and Drusilla had done her share as well, including killing Kendra. He was never going to be able to forget that in the way some people seemed able to do.

Like the others in the group Xander was presently dependent on Angel and Drusilla for guidance as they led the way through the smelly sewers of Sunnydale. As part of the grand plan, the non-Slayers and non-witches were on their way to the Sunnydale Slayer HQ by the underground route with the aim of getting as close as possible, all the way if possible, without anybody or anything spotting them.

What they would do when they got there hadn't been decided. But on general principles it had been agreed that it would be best if they were on the spot in case they were needed because whatever Wolfram and Hart really planned would be going down there. And that was also where the new Hellmouth was due to be opened.

Angel led the single file of people with Drusilla right behind him. Then followed Xander, Wesley, Giles and Connor. So far they had not had any encounters. It was just as if the present day Sunnydale sewers were now just like those of any other town. But Angel had called a halt and hissed for silence twice now so he presumably had detected some other activity in the area. Angel now stopped for a third time and signalled the others to remain stationary while he scouted ahead once more.

"Maybe we'll be able to get as far as the Slayer HQ before anybody spots us," said Giles quietly. "I didn't think it was possible but we've come a long way. Maybe Wolfram and Hart still think we're back on Kallistien. Maybe they're not prepared for us."

"It we come up within the grounds, I'll lead the way to the front door and inside," said Xander. "Just as if I lived there, which of course I do some of the time." Unlike anybody else amongst present company he added quietly to himself. Willow's defences will recognise me he thought. I wonder if they'll recognise Angel and Drusilla?

"We won't get that far," said Connor. "Wolfram and Hart won't want us inside that building now. Even if they don't expect us they'll be prepared for somebody to attack them. That's they way they think. They'll have their own security cordon in place. I expect there'll be a few demonic guards we have to take down before we get there and there'll be humans waiting for us like those security agencies."

Connor didn't sound worried at the prospect of meeting opposition. Indeed everybody knew Connor well enough to know that he would be disappointed if they had a clear run all the way to the HQ.

"Yes, what about those NID people?" asked Wesley. "They're human so they'll be armed. The vampires might be OK against bullets but the rest of us are not bullet proof, well not completely even though these vests will help." The group had been given protective jackets by General Hammond before they left the SGC. Well all but Angel and Drusilla who had refused the offer.

"We'll be alright against guns so long as we can get inside the grounds," said Xander. "Guns don't work there. Willow's made sure of that." Not even Wolfram and Hart's evil little sorcerers will have been able to undo her spells he thought confidently.

All at once the sound of fighting could be heard from up ahead. Angel had it seems finally met something hostile. Perhaps their approach via this route was not so unexpected after all thought Xander, or perhaps all routes were covered whichever way they went. Or maybe Angel has bitten off more than he can chew he thought cheerily.

Drusilla immediately started forward at a run followed quickly by Connor and they disappeared around the corner up ahead. Giles and Wesley pulled out their swords and wooden stakes also hurried after the others. Xander took a little more time and brought up the rear.

Yes, if there was fighting Xander would help, but helping Angel wasn't something that he treated with the same urgency as helping Buffy or Willow. He would stay near to Giles he thought and cover his back. Giles was the one most deserving of his help.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Don't look at me. It was your idea," said Vala. "You're the one who knows all about witchcraft."

"I thought you said you knew about it as well?" asked Dawn suspiciously. She was beginning to realise that just because Vala said something, it wasn't necessarily so.

But at least Vala's ability to be creative with the facts had enabled her to talk the police into releasing them. Vala had done all the talking. By the time she had finished everybody was convinced that Dawn was an innocent bystander and had nothing to do with the disappearance of the other young woman.

Vala herself had only been due to be locked up for the night anyway and had been released with a warning not to take part in any more gambling events in that town. Vala had not divulged details of what that was all about and Dawn had not asked, especially as she soon realised that she was unlikely to be given an accurate account of events anyway.

Vala had proposed to Dawn that somehow she had been displaced, not to the past or the future but to an alternative reality. Dawn had seized on this possibility and suggested that they consult a witch and see if a magic portal could be opened back to her original reality, back to her original Kallistien.

Unfortunately the experiment had not been a success. Finding a consulting witch in this version of Kallistien had proven very easy and the witch had been confident she could do what was asked. But for reasons unknown it had not proven possible for the witch to open a portal, any portal. The 'spheres' were not properly aligned the witch had claimed, whatever that might mean.

"I said I knew about witchcraft," said Vala. "What I meant was I know it exists. I didn't mean I know all the rules and spells and things. That's what witches are for and I'm not a witch."

"So what now?" asked Dawn. "You're from another planet. Don't you have a spaceship or something? Couldn't we fly to some other planet with a Stargate and see if that's working?"

"I did have a spaceship but that... ," began Vala but she did not finish the sentence. "Anyway that doesn't matter now. I don't have a spaceship any more and I don't think there's one on this entire planet. I'm just as stranded as you are."

"But at least you're in the right universe," said Dawn. "I'm not, not if you're right about the Multiverse thing."

"We're both a long way from home," said Vala. "So we've got the same problem, even if the details are a little different. I need to leave here just as much as you do. That's why we should work together."

"OK, the same problem. But we don't have a solution," said Dawn. "The Stargate has stopped working, we can't open a magic portal and we don't have a spaceship. We're stuck here."

"Not necessarily," said Vala thoughtfully. "You seem to be able to move between worlds, even if nobody else can. Is there something about you that you haven't told me?"

Dawn shrugged but said nothing despite Vala's continuing stare.

"OK," said Vala realising that Dawn was not going to volunteer any more information. "I've got an idea. Let's go have another word with that witch."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The three young women had stopped in the middle of the street as if they were waiting for something. One of them was absentmindedly swinging an axe around while the other two looked bored. Not one of them seemed to be aware of any danger or appeared to be in any way worried about being outside in a dangerous town in the middle of the night.

"They look human," said agent Bledslow quietly from his position crouched down within a darkened shop entrance about two hundred yards away from the women. "Which is more than I can say for a lot of the things that have passed down this street in last few hours."

"They're waiting for something, or somebody," said senior agent Gates who was crouched next to him. Both agents were holding their automatic rifles ready for immediate use.

"If they wait there much longer something will find them," said Bledslow. "Something that'll probably eat them. We can't just leave them there."

"Our orders are to keep anybody human out of the area," said Gates. "If they don't come any further they're none of our business."

"You're forgetting why we joined this organisation in the first place," said Bledslow. "I don't know about you but I joined to help people, not just to watch while people get killed because of some orders."

"We don't have the whole picture," said Gates. "You know that. We stay here unless they start moving into town." Or unless something attacks them he thought. He agreed with Bledslow, but he wasn't going to admit it unless he really had to. In the NID you never knew what might get on your permanent record.

At that moment things happened, and happened quickly. And before either agent could decide whether to intervene it was all over.

A dark bulky figure, about the size of a large man, suddenly launched itself out of the window of a nearby building. Whatever it was it intended coming down on top of the nearest woman, the shorter of the two brunets and that is exactly what it would have done had the woman remained where she was.

The leaping creature made no sound at all but something alerted the woman, in fact alerted all three women and they reacted immediately. Instead of coming down on top of the woman the creature landed on the ground.

The creature started out approximately human shaped but by the time it hit the ground it was short of a few pieces and quite dead: Its head, neatly sliced off by Kennedy, rolled down the road to stop in the gutter. One arm, with its clawed hand still holding a wicked looking long knife had been cut off by Buffy. Faith had thrown a pointed stake into the chest of the creature and been disappointed when it didn't turn to dust.

"Don't look like they need any help," said Bledslow. "Maybe they're not so human after all."

"Nothing human reacts that fast," said Gates. "If they come this way we've got to take them down."

"If they're not human we let them pass by don't we?" asked Bledslow. "Isn't that the order? We only stop humans and let the boss's 'other arrangements' take care of the monsters and stuff?"

"Not exactly," said Gates. "What the Colonel said..."

At that moment the lights went out. Not just the street lights but every light in town. But almost immediately the full moon shone brightly down on the streets below. But in the brief instant as the eyes of the agents were becoming accustomed to the different lighting the three women had gone. They had totally disappeared. Either that or they had moved very quickly indeed.


	65. Lines of Attack

**Chapter Sixty Five: Lines of Attack**

"OK, if everybody's finally ready," said Lilah. "Can you all now step forward and take your places in the circle around the place where the Hellmouth is to open. Take the hands of the people next to you to complete the circle and we can start the ceremony to get it open."

At first Gunn, Fred and the others said nothing. They already knew what to do. They had just needed to know when. When they completed the circle it would consist of a ring of people alternately from each side. Gunn, Fred, Vi, Lorne and Robin would participate along with five Wolfram and Hart people. The Sunnydale group had told Lilah that the Whitelighters would simply watch. But Leo and Jenny would be ready to rescue the others by orb if necessary.

But then, although everything had finally been agreed, Gunn decided to try to put a late spanner in the works. He was still not reconciled to going along with Wolfram and Hart no matter how many times he was told there was no alternative. He had had too many bad experiences of the demonic law firm to trust them, no matter what the circumstances. He still had the nagging feeling that Lilah Morgan was succeeding in putting something over on them.

"How do we know this is safe," he asked. "We open up a Hellmouth and what happens next. It swallows us? Lots of demons rush out and kill us? The world is destroyed? Something even worse than that?"

"Of course it's not safe," said Lilah. "Nothing's safe any more. Doing nothing's not safe. If we'd been allowed to do this a few days ago it would have been safer. But with a Hellmouth there's always a risk. We already talked this through over and over. You'll be in danger, but you'll not be in any more danger than my people are."

"That's a point," said Fred glaring at Lilah. "Why aren't you going to be part of the circle? Why aren't you taking the same risks as the rest of us?"

"Yeah," said Lorne. "You don't mind if all of your people are swallowed up by the Hellmouth. Wolfram and Hart isn't exactly famous for its employee care plan. You wouldn't mind if everybody in the circle were blasted down to Hell if it got you what you wanted."

"Oh for goodness sake," began Lilah. "How many more times? This is the only thing we can do. We have no choice. Your people up there," Lilah gave a nod towards the sky, "and down here," she nodded towards Leo and Jenny, "have told you that haven't they?"

The group standing around Lilah exchanged glances and shrugged but nobody made a move towards joining the circle.

Lilah sighed and continued. "Look, I'm right here. I'm in just as much danger as all of you. Anything that happens here happens to me as well, OK? I'm not in a safe place in a cave or on some other planet."

"If you're in just as much danger then why don't you join the circle?" asked Gunn. "Just what are you really up to? What have you got to gain from all this? Gain personally that is?"

"I can't join the circle because it would unbalance the numbers," said Lilah. "And I can't pull out one of my mages, they're all needed. And I gain just as much as you all do. I get to carry on living on a planet that hasn't been destroyed. Now can we please get on with this because if we wait any longer there'll be no point in doing it at all."

At that moment the lights went out but the darkness was brief. The house generator had been working since the earthquakes had begun to disrupt the local mains electricity supply. But whatever glitch interrupted the generator did not last more than a moment. However the brief darkness stopped all talk. The first to speak again when the lights came back on was the commander of the SG unit guarding the Sunnydale Gate situated on the other side of the basement.

"The Stargate's got a contact," said Captain Dietrich staring at a computer screen in front of him. "There's an unscheduled offworld activation. Somebody off world is trying to open this Gate."

"How?" asked Robin Wood. "I thought it wouldn't work until we finished all this business? Isn't that part of the reason for what we are doing?"

"Yeah, that's what we were told," said Gunn once again looking suspiciously at Lilah. She said nothing but simply shrugged, held out her hands and shook her head to indicate that she didn't know any more than they did.

"Beats me," said Dietrich. "I don't really understand why it stopped working in the first place. All I know is this Gate's got a contact."

At that moment the worm hole of the connection flowed out and back to settle into the familiar watery curtain of an open wormhole connection. It continued to ripple briefly and then settled. Everybody in the basement was now on high alert, staring at the Gate, waiting to see who or what would come through.

Captain Dietrich and his SGC people held their guns at the ready on guard. They had been told that the guns wouldn't work in the slayer building but they hadn't really believed it. Anyway, Dietrich had reasoned, his people were all trained to use their guns as weapons even when they could not be fired and had ordered bayonets to be fitted. If anybody or anything hostile came through they wouldn't have an easy time of it.

Everybody else in the basement remained quiet and on alert for several minutes, expecting the imminent arrival of who knew what, until finally Fred broke the silence. "Where's it connected to," she asked. "Is it an attack or is it somebody friendly?"

"If this was the SGC Stargate I could answer that," said Dietrich. "But this Gate doesn't have the same level of computer backup. Unless they reply to the radio signals I've sent to them we won't know who they are until they step through."

But nobody would be stepping through. At that moment the connection was broken from the other end, wherever that was. The space within the Gate cleared and it once again became inert.

"Maybe somebody tried calling but it didn't work properly before it all broke down again," suggested Vi.

"Well nobody sent a signal through," said Dietrich. "It couldn't have been one of our groups."

"Whatever it was," began Lilah who then broke off briefly from what she was saying while yet another minor earth tremor shook the building. "Whatever it was it doesn't make any difference. This sort of glitch is probably something we should expect anyway. We've got to press on with what we're doing. Now can we please get this circle formed while we still can?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They had so far cleaned out three nests of vampires and two groups of demons. The underground sewers of Sunnydale were positively overflowing with underworld denizens. But as usual with vampires and demons there was not much organisation. The various groups did not in any sense constitute an army. They all seemed to be separately waiting for the Hellmouth to open. Fortunately, apart from a few cuts and bruises nobody in the party being led by Angel had been injured or killed.

After moving away from the scene of the latest fight and its dead demon bodies Angel called another halt in a clear spot to discuss the next move.

"It should be dark up there by now," said Giles looking at his watch. "If everything has gone according to plan the town will be blacked out."

"We're only a couple of blocks away from the HQ," said Angel. "But it might be tough the rest of the way. The last few sewers will be the hardest. They're closest to where the new Hellmouth is planned to be so there might be solid demons and vampires from now on."

"So we change the plan," said Xander. "That's what we always do when things don't work out. And they never work out exactly the way we plan do they? Can't we just pretend to be demons and vampires ourselves and sneak by?"

Angel shook his head. "Wouldn't work," he said. "You smell like humans. You'd be spotted straight away."

"We shouldn't be sneaking around anyway. Why don't we just hit the demons and vampires some more?" suggested Connor. "Isn't that one of the reasons why we're here, to divert attention from the others and make Wolfram and Hart think we're the big threat. The more demons we kill now the fewer we'll have to worry about when the Hellmouth is open."

"That sounds like a good way to get us all killed," said Wesley. "If you're outnumbered you don't go for a frontal assault." Not if you have any sense he added but he did not say that aloud. "Sneaking around has won a lot of battles. The plan is to get as many of us to the Slayer HQ as possible, not to fight battles. We're only going this way to avoid being seen by human agents and because we didn't want our magic users to drain themselves transporting everybody."

"The only way we can properly divert the attention of Wolfram and Hart is to get to the Slayer HQ," said Giles. "Lilah Morgan won't care what happens to the demons and vampires down here in the sewers. If she opens that Hellmouth the way she wants to there'll be a lot more to take their place. If we can't continue on down here we'd better get up there."

Drusilla had been scouting a little way ahead. Now she returned to the sewer tunnel intersection where the others were talking.

"They're coming from above," she said. "They are coming from above, they're coming now and they're coming in helicopters."

"Helicopters?" asked Giles. "What do you mean helicopters?"

"Those things with the whirly blades on top. They fly though the air," said Xander. "You must have them in England."

Giles gave Xander an exasperated look then glanced back at Drusilla. "Who's coming now in helicopters? Did you hear them or is this something from your second sight?" he asked.

"It can't be General Hammond," said Wesley. "He won't be sending in any of his people unless we give him the signal."

"I can hear them now," said Angel looking up to the ceiling of the sewer. "Several helicopters. Must be some sort of military unit."

"Maybe something happened and the General decided to move in anyway," suggested Xander.

"Or maybe the people in those helicopters are working for somebody else. Somebody like the Secret Service people working with Wolfram and Hart," said Connor. "Always assume the unexpected is bad news and you won't go far wrong."

"OK, that decides it. We stay down here and press on," said Angel. "Dealing with soldiers isn't our business. Down here dealing with the vampires and the demons, that's our business. Until we reach the HQ that's how we can be most useful."

"You said you didn't think we could get through down here," said Connor.

"Yes I did but we'll just have to do the best we can," said Angel. "I think we've got a better chance down here than facing automatic weapons and helicopter gun ships. Anyway we don't want to fight humans if we can avoid it. It might be difficult to avoid killing some of them."

"Watch your father," said Wesley to Connor quietly as Angel turned away to lead them further along the sewer tunnels. "We're going to carry on sneaking around for as long as we can and there's nobody better at sneaking around than your dad."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I'm quite happy staying right here," said Jack leaning back in his chair. "Goulies, demons, vampires and things like that, not our business."

"You sound like you want to put the genii back in the bottle," said Daniel, who was sat next to Jack in the SG-1 control room. "Can't be done."

"Genii?" queried Teal'c. "What's a genii and what bottle are you talking about?" Teal'c was sat on the other side of Daniel.

"It's just an expression. It means we can't undo what's already been done," said Sam quietly from her position monitoring a computer screen. "Or at least not without magic," she added mischievously.

"How many years have you lived on this planet?" Jack asked Daniel.

"What sort of question is that?" asked Daniel.

"Well I've lived here a few years longer than you and neither of us met any witches or demon things up until now," said Jack. "Seems to me people like that, things like that, generally keep out of the way. When this is all over if they want to go back to keeping out of the way that's fine by me. We can all go back to disbelieving in them."

"You can't seriously mean that?" asked Daniel.

"No, not really," said Jack. "But I'm not going looking for any more of that sort of thing once this is all over. Seems to me there are people much better equipped to deal with those types of problems. We save the world in our way and they save it in theirs."

"Unless we meet 'that sort of thing' on another planet," said Daniel. "Next time the locals complain about demons they might just be complaining about the real thing and not some alien life form."

"There's something else you're forgetting," said Sam looking up from the screen in front of her. "Last we heard, Apophis still had some witches on at least one of his ships. If he survives, whatever happens back on Kallistien we might have to face magic using enemies again in the future."

"By then those witches might be controlled by Goa'uld symbiotes," said Teal'c. "We shall need to recruit some of the friendly witches to assist us. I think they will be prepared to help rescue other witches. And I should like their help to see if I can contact any witches there might be amongst the Jaffa."

"I wonder how the General will describe that in the budget allocation," said Daniel. "I don't think recruiting 'special ability' people will satisfy anybody for long. Not if this Stargate breakdown means an official inquiry."

"Special units, reserve standby technicians, contractors, consultants, something like that," said Jack. "The US military have got a couple of centuries of experience in getting funding for just about any sort of boondoggle. The General will get it through somehow if he has to. Hell, I heard we even managed to employ an Egyptologist in one of our Air Force bases."

Daniel gave Jack an exasperated look but said nothing.

"Do these witches need to be paid?" asked Teal'c. "Does this affect your budget? Does their magic not include producing whatever funds they need? Do they actually need funding from you?"

Jack shrugged. "Who knows? But don't let the IRS hear you say that," he said. "They don't take kindly to people literally making their own money."

"OK, something's happening," said Sam gazing intently at the information on her screen. "That's the third successive quake originating in the same part of Southern California. Looks to me like its all happening right under Sunnydale."

"So what are you saying, a quake and after shocks?" asked Daniel moving forward to look over Sam's shoulder.

"Not exactly," said Sam. "After shocks are generally smaller than the original quake. What we seem to have here are a swarm of quakes, but the big ones seem to be getting bigger and bigger. It all seems to be building up for something really big, just like we were told it would."

"Something really big like the opening of a Hellmouth?" asked Daniel. And then he stopped to pursue a few thoughts of his own. Not all seismic activity was explained by plate tectonics. Is this the way this sort of thing usually happened? And what about those very rare mega volcanic eruptions? Did they happen because of some sort of connection to a Hell Dimension? What exactly was going to be let loose in Sunnydale?

"So are we all ready here," Jack asked Sam. "No chance of a blowback or something through the Sunnydale Gate?"

"We're as safe as we can make it sir," said Sam. "That's to say as safe as everybody else on the planet."

"And who knows how safe that is," said Daniel.

"As you know we've de-powered our Gate," continued Sam. "I told Willow and the sisters what they needed to know about how the Gates work. All we can do now is wait."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So what do we do next?" asked Dawn. "Just wait for the next jump to another world?"

"What else can we do?" asked Vala with a shrug. "Unless you know of a way to control these jumps to other worlds that you've decided not to mention up to now?" she added suspiciously.

The two women were currently eating a picnic lunch in a local park. They had put into action the plan that they had devised and were now wondering about how long it would be before anything happened.

Dawn had already thought about trying to control a jump to another world. On the previous world she had tried concentrating hard and willing herself back home, back to the original Kallistien or to anywhere at all really. But nothing had happened.

Dawn had even tried to cast some made up magic spells of her own but that was very half hearted since she did not know enough about magic to do that sort of thing. She had no spell book of her own and so far had not been able to obtain one, so when her spellcasting had failed she had not been surprised.

But the plan suggested by Vala had relied on a little more than will power or made up spells. They had returned to the local witch they had previously visited and Vala had paid her to carry out some magic ready for when Dawn jumped to the next world. Always assuming that there would be a next jump of course and that Dawn did not find herself stuck permanently in her present location.

If things went according to plan the next time the connection to other worlds opened up ready to swap her with yet another similar looking young woman, Dawn would not jump to some apparently random destination. Instead she would jump back to the original Kallistien in exchange for whoever might have been dumped there in her place. Once back in the original Kallistien she could try to contact Buffy and the others and hopefully return home.

What nobody knew, including the witch, was whether things would work out in the way planned. But the witch thought there was a good chance for success because Dawn would automatically have an affinity with her own universe so the spell would be working towards, rather than against, a natural balance.

Vala had insisted on being included in the spell. She wanted to go with Dawn when she next jumped and was staying close by the younger woman for that reason. The witch carrying out the spell had pointed out that this might not work but if it did it would probably mean the displacement of another Vala from Dawn's universe. But this had not bothered Vala. Her priority was to get away from the world were she was currently trapped. Another Vala would have to sort things out for herself.

"Well if that other Vala is like you, you might find yourself with even bigger problems than you have now," Dawn had pointed out. "She might be in even bigger trouble than you are."

"That might apply to you as well," said Vala. "You might be jumping out of the pan and into the fire."

But of course neither woman had any intention of remaining where they were. It was not in their nature. All they could do now was wait for things to happen and then deal with the consequences.


	66. Reaching a Climax

**Chapter Sixty Six: Chapter Sixty Six: Reaching a Climax**

"That's impossible," Lilah hissed quietly into her cellphone. "They can't be Slayers, they're still off world and they've got no way to get back. All they can be is potential Slayers. Tell everybody they've got nothing to worry about."

Lilah paused briefly and listened to the speaker on the other end of the phone: "Oh, yeah, I suppose that's possible," she said. "If they were killed over there I suppose we might have some new Slayers to deal with back here." Lilah listened again.

"Look, what you do is up to you. I can't possibly get involved now," she said before lowering her voice even further. "You'll just have to do the best you can. If the vampires and demons are panicking that's their problem. There'll soon be a lot more coming through the Hellmouth. We don't really need them. All you need to do is keep those Slayers or whoever they are out of this building until we're all done. It won't be long now."

That's just what we need thought Lilah. A new bunch of Slayers. But what could they do? Even if they were here they'd have to let us open up the new Hellmouth. And once it's open it'll take more than three Slayers to save the world. But best they be kept away she thought. You never knew with Slayers. Once they got involved, even if only one got involved, things had a tendency to become... unpredictable.

Lilah's further musing was interrupted by yet another shock as the building shook with the largest earth tremor so far. But Lilah had an even greater shock as she turned back to the mixed group that were taking part in the Hellmouth opening. For there in front of her was the familiar face of Cordelia Chase.

"They're not new Slayers you know," said Cordelia to the stunned Lilah. "They're the real deal, Buffy, Faith and Kennedy. They're back, and so are we. So you can forget whatever it is you've got planned. It's so not going to happen."

Even as Cordelia spoke Lilah realised that the number of people in the basement was continuing to increase. Other very familiar faces somehow materialised one by one as other women appeared; Amy, Anya, Tara and, worst of all Willow. The Sunnydale witches were all back!

"How... what did you do," began Lilah. "There's no way... I was assured..."

"You just go on believing that," said Cordelia staring at Lilah. "We're not really here. It's all a bad dream you're having. Sit down, take a pill. Leave it to the experts, the people who've had experience of dealing with a Hellmouth. But whatever you do don't do anything stupid. If you do I guarantee you'll be the first one to suffer."

Lilah was at a complete loss. This can't be real she thought. And then she had another thought. This is going to mess up everything.

"You don't understand," said Lilah. "If you change what my people are going to do the Hellmouth will still open. You all being back doesn't change that. But if you interfere, if you don't do things properly, the opening will bust the world wide open. You might not want a world overrun by demons but isn't that better than no world at all?"

But even as she spoke Lilah realised that she was wasting her breath. Nobody was taking any notice. The Sunnydale witches had been briefed by Amy and were joining the circle to take the place of the non-magic users who had been ready to take part in the ceremony. Cordelia had spoken of taking charge, but clearly she and the others did not mean to stop the opening of the Hellmouth. But the opening would no longer be under the sole control of Wolfram and Hart.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So what are they waiting for?" asked Glory as she continued to watch the gathering of Kallistien witches. "Why don't they get on with it? Isn't anybody in charge?" A sudden thought occurred to Glory. "Perhaps I should take charge," she added ominously.

"They think they're waiting for Lissie to say everything is ready," said the other Glory. "They want to be sure the Key has been properly activated and is ready to be used. They need the power of the Key. They can't protect the planet with just their own magic power."

"They only think that? They're waiting and they don't know the real reason why?" asked a puzzled Glory.

"Everything has to come together remember," said the other Glory. "This ceremony, the big event back on Earth, your Earth that is, and everything else as well. Everybody thinks they're acting independently..."

"But everybody's wrong?" asked Glory.

The other Glory smiled. "When Fate takes a hand, when things that have already happened and things that are yet to happen are all so closely linked there's not really any leeway. It all has to happen in the right order and at the right time."

"You're not actually much like me are you?" said Glory eyeing the other Glory suspiciously. "I would never spout such meaningless nonsense as that. Who are you really and what exactly are you up to?"

I would never talk like that in a million years she thought, no matter how different I am in other universes. And for Glory, at least for this Glory, to think was to act. She grabbed the other Glory and focused her attention on the other woman.

Almost immediately the 'other Glory' changed and Glory found herself holding the arm of a completely different woman, a young woman who was very familiar to Glory: Dawn! Or not quite Dawn because on closer examination the woman was not exactly Dawn but could pass for a close relative.

And this Dawn wasn't upset or worried to face Glory. "Does it matter?" she asked. "I just looked like you to get your attention. To get you to listen to me and not interfere in things you know nothing about. From what I know of you the only person you respect is Glory. So I 'became' Glory."

"And who are you really?" asked Glory. "Where do you get your power? And what are you up to? Just for general interest before I kill you."

"What am I up to? I'm just making sure things are restored the way they should be, that's my job." said 'Dawn'. "I've got to put things back the way they were before you and all the others messed everything up by opening and closing things that should have been left alone."

Glory stared hard at 'Dawn' and tightened her grip. "I won't ask again, just exactly who are you?"

"Me? Why I'm your old friend of course," said 'Dawn'. "Your old green and glowing friend, independent of time and space. A word of advice. Go back to your own dimension while you still can and stay there. Last time you got a second chance and managed to go home. There won't be any second chances this time. If you're still here when this business is all done you'll be stuck here. You'll never get back home again."

Glory opened her mouth to ask another question but before she could do so 'Dawn' spoke again: "Sorry, can't chat any more, things to do, places to go, people to be."

And with that 'Dawn' suddenly morphed into a bright green flash which shot off towards the gathering of witches and keepers and then disappeared from sight. And nor were the other versions of Glory anywhere to be seen either, if they had really been there in the first place.

But somebody else was now very definitely there: Dawn, the original Dawn. At the moment the green flash disappeared the real Dawn appeared, not to replace the woman who had disappeared but to replace Lissie who had disappeared at the same time.

Dawn was now in the witches' circle but Lissie was not. She was now nowhere to be seen. But Dawn was not the only new arrival. Vala had also appeared and like Dawn was trying to puzzle out exactly what was going on. So too were the surrounding witches and Keepers.

Glory thought briefly about going over and taking hold of the real Dawn and questioning her. But one glance at the young woman showed that as usual she was completely bewildered about what was going on. It didn't look likely that she would be able to supply any useful information.

Glory sighed and decided to accept the advice of the Key. She could feel the power of the Key continue to build. If she didn't return home now she might soon be on the wrong side of new barriers between worlds. If there was one thing she knew about the Key, it was good at erecting and dismantling portals between worlds. It had a lot of power so Glory would be best advised not to go up against it. She disappeared from sight.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Special Forces completed their landings and the last of their helicopters rose back into the air. Colonel Maybourne exchanged salutes and shook hands with their commander Colonel Knight. He then led the way into the nearby building which was the current Sunnydale HQ of the NID. It was across the road from the front entrance of the Slayer HQ

"I'm told you know the current situation on the ground," said Knight immediately after they entered the building. "What exactly are we up against? Terrorists? Local gangs? Drug lords? What's their strength? What weapons do they have?"

"Did you have any problems flying over the town or landing your troops?" asked Maybourne. "I was told there might be some interference."

"Interference?" queried Knight. "No, no interference. We were the only people up there. Are you saying the enemy might have their own airborne, or a ground to air strike capability? Who are we dealing with? Why are they here and what are they up to?"

So Lilah Morgan was bluffing again thought Maybourne, what a surprise. There is no barrier. Or maybe her arrangements were only to keep out the other side, the magic and mystical people.

"Colonel," said Knight interrupting Maybourne's thoughts. "I was told to report to you but if you don't tell me anything I can't do my job properly. What is the situation? I was told my unit was needed urgently."

"Sorry," said Maybourne. "Things have been pretty hectic around here. You haven't been told why you're here?"

"My orders are to secure the town and to get details from you about what's going on here," said Knight. "My briefing said we were faced with an unknown number of hostiles of unknown capabilities and armaments. Worst briefing I've ever been given."

"OK," said Maybourne. "It's like this: You're here in a preventative capacity, to provide protection. With you here we'll be able to stop anybody, even other parts of our military, from interfering with some delicate, ah operations."

"Operations?" asked Knight. "What operations?"

"I can't tell you any more than you need to know," said Maybourne. "With any luck this won't develop into a shooting war. But there are parts of our military with different ideas about what the NID are doing. They might try to use their muscle against us. You're here to make sure they don't get to do that and at the same time to prevent anybody else from interfering."

"My men will not fire on other American troops," said Knight who was now studying Maybourne. "And I won't order them to. We're not anybody's private army. We're part of the US Military ourselves."

"Good," said Maybourne but good was not what he was thinking. "That's good. But if some other units turn up we have to hope they follow the same rules. Don't worry Colonel. I'm sure it won't come to shooting, at least not against American troops. Now what's your strength? How have you deployed your men? They all need to be in this area of town. We need to make it a fortress."

"As you saw I've got a company deployed outside," said Knight. "At the moment they're establishing a secure perimeter around this HQ. I've also put down units north, south, east and west. I was told we had to hold the town. At the moment we're deployed to cover the main approaches, the main highways. The troops I hold here are the central reserve. We can respond immediately to any outside attack and we can call back the helicopters if we need them."

"This central area is all you need to worry about," said Maybourne. "What you need to do is concentrate all your troops in this area, completely lock it down."

"Concentration is poor tactics," said Knight shaking his head. "Put all your men in one place and a single strike can take them all out."

"You're under my orders Colonel," said Maybourne. "And that's how I want you to deploy. We have to secure this immediate area. Nothing else matters."

"Yes I'm under your orders Colonel, but you're an Air Force Officer so it's my duty to advise you on sensible ground force tactics," said Knight. "And that's not a sensible way to deploy under any conditions."

"Look just contact your units and tell them...," began Maybourne starting to get annoyed. But he was interrupted by the arrival of a lieutenant who ran into the building. He was a member of Knight's Special Forces Unit and he reported directly to Knight.

"Colonel! We've heard from Pickett in the south. He's under attack. And we can't establish contact with Captain Martinez in the west!"

"Who's attacking Pickett?" asked Knight as he hurried out of the building and towards the communication center that his staff were setting up outside. Maybourne hurried along behind. "They're not American troops are they?"

"I don't think so sir," said the lieutenant. "Pickett says they're some sort of monsters or aliens."

Knight glanced at Maybourne who didn't seem to be surprised.

"You need to listen to me," said Maybourne.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Whatever it is you got planned think again," said Gunn quietly.

Since leaving his place in the circle preparing to open the Hellmouth Gunn had given himself the task of keeping a close watch on Lilah Morgan. This lady just lives for the double cross was the way he looked at it. Sooner or later, probably sooner, she would do something that wasn't in the script, something that would be bad news for anybody who wasn't working for Wolfram and Hart. No, he corrected himself. Bad news for anybody who wasn't Lilah Morgan.

"As soon as the Hellmouth is open I'm out of here," said Lilah. "You know as well as I do that some nasties will be coming through. Dealing with them is your job, not mine. You're the Champions."

"How nasty are we talking?" asked Gunn. "Vampire nasty? Demon nasty? Or worst of all Lilah Morgan nasty?"

Lilah scowled and shook her head. "How should I know," she said. "All I know is when you open a link to a Hell Dimension the demons and monsters generally pop through for a look around and a little fun. You should be expecting that and when it happens don't blame me."

On the other side of the basement the magic users of both sides were now busy with their spells. Each magic user in turn invoked their own spell before falling silent and allowing the next in the ring to do their thing. So far about half of the ten people in the circle had done what they needed to do. The climax would be reached when Willow and then Gerald, the Chief Mage from Wolfram and Hart, finished the process. At that stage the Hellmouth should start to open in the floor in the middle of the circle.

"The Stargate's powering up again," said one of the military personnel from across the room. They had kept well clear of the magic users and were continuing to follow their orders by guarding the Sunnydale Stargate.

"Somebody else trying to reach us?" asked Fred as she walked over to that side of the room followed by some of the others who were not casting spells.

"Nope, this time the Gate is dialling out," said Captain Dietrich from his position next to the DHD. "But nobody's doing the dialling. It seems to be dialling itself." He shook his head. All part of the general craziness of this place he told himself.

Lilah and Gunn had also hurried over to join Captain Dietrich and the others.

"What's happening?" asked Lilah who then watched as the dialling sequence was completed and a wormhole was established. "How can it do that if nobody's doing the dialling?"

But no sooner had Lilah asked the question than she worked out an answer for herself. Willow and the other Sunnydale witches hadn't broken through the protection against teleporting and orbing after all. They must have come through the Gate when the wormhole was formed a short time before she thought. Nobody had been able to see them because they were rendered invisible by magic or the power of the Whitelighter with them. And who was to say that all of the witches who had come through the Gate were now visible?

"Beats me," said Dietrich. "You people are the ones with all the magic. You explain. The Stargate shouldn't be able to do that."

"Maybe it's a side-affect of everything that's happened?" suggested Fred. "The Gates are linked somehow to whatever's happening to the universe. Maybe the magic spells have sort of loosened things up?"

"No! It's not meant to happen that way," said Lilah who was getting a very bad feeling. The sort of feeling that said run as far and as fast as she could because things were not going to happen the way she had planned.

"So how is it meant to happen?" asked Gunn, once again glaring at Lilah. "What exactly do you have planned?"

"You shouldn't be worrying about what I've got planned," said Lilah. "I'm not doing this. You want to speak to your friends the witches. They're the ones who are going to get you all killed." As she finished speaking Lilah began to move, oh so casually, towards the exit to the basement.

"What's on the other side?" asked Vi who now stood fascinated at the sight of a working Stargate and its watery threshold. "Could we just walk through and step out on another world? What other world has been dialled up?"

"Good question," said Fred looking at Captain Dietrich. Dietrich in turn looked at Corporal Hamilton who was studying the screen of his laptop computer.

"The dialling code isn't on our list," said Hamilton. "It could be anywhere, anywhere in the galaxy."

"You don't want to step through without knowing what's on the other side," said Dietrich. "It could be a world without air or with massive gravity. It could instantly kill you."

"So how do you usually find out what's on the other side before you...," began Vi only to be interrupted.

"It's moving," said Gunn. "Watch out."

And indeed it was. As everybody hurried out of the way the Stargate itself, connected as it was to a wormhole that led who knew where, was beginning to float across the floor towards them.

That was enough for Lilah. Nobody was now looking at her. The magic users were still busy in their circle. Everybody else was looking at the Stargate or moving out of the way as it moved. It's moving towards the magic circle thought Lilah as she turned and raced up the stairs. That's not a coincidence.


	67. The Power Begins to Flow

**Chapter Sixty Seven: The Power Begins to Flow**

Hit and run, that was the chosen tactic. The slayers were capable of moving at great speed and sustaining it for a long time. Immediately the lights went out they moved and they moved very fast. All three were eager to get back to what they were born to do: slay the demons and vampires.

Amy had told them what she had seen of vampires and demons gathering in Sunnydale. The plan was for the slayers to do something about it. They would conduct a series of sweeps through the town, cutting down vampires and demons as they went. Cut, chop, stab or stake as appropriate, don't wait to see if the victim was dead or only injured but hit hard and then move on straight away.

They had decided not to bother burying or hiding the bodies that don't turn to dust. That would all have to be sorted out later. As Buffy had pointed out there were bigger issues at stake (!) at the moment. They had to spend as much time as possible killing as many enemies as they could. The clean up brigade to restore confidentially to the business of slaying and magic would be able to restore things at leisure the next day. Either that or nobody would be alive to bother about that sort of thing or indeed about anything else.

As they swept through the darkened town the slayers cut down any isolated individual demons or vampires. They also hit a few small groups but for the moment they bypassed a couple of larger gatherings. What they were doing was intended to give the impression that there were slayers everywhere and that none of the underworld denizens could feel safe.

The word would soon go round. This was the slayers' town and the slayers were back in business. Any vampire, monster or demon who wanted to stick around would soon be in a world of trouble. Just as the word had gotten around to gather in Sunnydale perhaps the word would just as quickly go around that it was no longer a good place to be.

Buffy, Faith and Kennedy could have waited until the magic users had finished what they were doing and could take part in the cleansing of Sunnydale. But that was not the way the slayers operated. The business with the Stargates and the Hellmouth was not something where their assistance would be required; at least not if all went to plan. And slayers were not chosen so that they could sit around waiting for help while others got on with the job.

Buffy led the way. She had known Sunnydale for longer than the others but both Faith and Kennedy also knew the not very large town pretty well. They were all familiar with the places where vampires and demons were likely to lurk and aimed to take in several of these locations on each sweep. On the whole the underworld creatures were very predictable in their choice of where to ambush victims and where to hang out.

The first sweep was completed successfully. The slayers had kept closely together with Kennedy acting as rear guard and finishing off some of the fallen monsters that had been struck down by Buffy and Faith. Altogether they must have killed twenty or more paid up members of the demonic fraternity and about a dozen vampires.

"Where next?" asked Faith, when the slayers finished their run in a park on the edge of town. Like the others she was not yet out of breath and, being Faith, was still very eager for more action. "How about we stop by Willy's to see what's happening there? Maybe its time we closed him down completely. And we can get a drink at the same time."

"I thought he went out of business after we shut down the Hellmouth?" asked Kennedy. "I thought most of his regular customers were staked or chopped up or whatever?"

"He closed down but not for long. He's now found new premises," said Buffy. "But I know where he is, Willow found out."

"I know it too," said Faith. "Let's go." She set off at a fast trot only to come to a halt almost immediately. Like the other slayers she had fallen silent in response to the unmistakable sound of gunfire from some streets away.

"That can't be demons," said Buffy. "They don't use guns."

"Maybe it's the local police fighting the demons?" suggested Kennedy.

"After all these years doing nothing?" said Faith sceptically. "I don't think so. Anyway, that sounds like automatic fire. That's got to be the military."

"Might be some of those secret agent guys," said Buffy. "The ones helping Wolfram and Hart. Or some soldier boy friends of theirs."

"But who are they firing at?" asked Kennedy. "I thought the secret agent guys were working with Wolfram and Hart?"

Buffy shrugged. "I doubt Wolfram and Hart control every sort of monster that's arrived in Sunnydale," she said.

"If they're fighting the monsters they might have bitten off more than they can chew," said Faith. "Bullets only annoy vampires and most sorts of demon."

"We'd better go look," said Buffy. "See if they need any help."

"Because?" asked Faith, unconvinced. "Aren't they the bad guys? Can't we just let them kill each other?"

"If it's humans against demons we're on the side of the humans," said Buffy. "Don't matter if they are secret agent guys, it's our job to protect humans. Anyway even if the bad guys are giving the orders it doesn't mean the guys with the guns are bad. They're just doing their jobs."

"So long as they see it that way and don't try to shoot us," muttered Kennedy. "We're slayers but we're not bullet proof."

As Buffy set off at a run to lead the way towards the sound of the gunfire Faith exchanged a glance with Kennedy and shook her head before following.

"It all depends on which demons and which humans doesn't it?" asked Kennedy quietly as she and Faith picked up speed to keep with Buffy.

Faith shrugged and smiled in reply. "Not for Buffy, not for any slayer I suppose," she said. "With one or two exceptions demons are bad, humans are good, until we have reason to find out differently."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Is everybody alright?" asked Giles looking around the garden. As he did so he mentally counted off all the members of their party. Everybody had made it and they all seemed to be in good health or rather they had not sustained any injuries apart from a few cuts and bruises.

For the moment there was nobody else in sight, not as far as could be seen in the moonlight. No demons or vampires and nobody who might have arrived in those military helicopters which they could still hear but which seemed to be becoming more and more distant every moment.

"Most of those demons weren't interested in fighting," said Angel. "The vampires and the demons are just waiting around for the Hellmouth to open. The word's got out. It always does. They're here to party and maybe meet a few old pals from the underworld. They don't want to die before all the fun begins."

"And why should they fight you anyway?" asked Xander trying to sound innocent. "They know you and Drusilla are vampires as well. They probably think you're on their side again. They must have as much trouble as we do knowing which side you're on this week."

Angel scowled at Xander but didn't respond. Everybody knew that Xander wasn't complimenting Angel on deceiving the enemy but was again implying that Angel's loyalties were uncertain. But even Xander knew that they wouldn't have gotten through the sewers filled with demons and vampires had Angel and Drusilla not been with them.

"Well for whatever reason that was a lot easier than expected," said Wesley breaking the silence. "We seem to be somewhat ahead of schedule. Unless of course the Hellmouth has already been opened."

"It hasn't," said Drusilla. "I think I'd know if it had been opened. I'd feel it. It won't be long but it's not quite time."

Wesley nodded. He still found it odd having an intelligent conversation with Drusilla. It was somehow easier accepting just Angel as a special case. But two or three special cases raised the issue of whether the watchers and slayers should try to rehabilitate vampires rather than simply kill them. But that's an argument for another day he thought with a glance at Giles.

"Hey!" called a loud voice from nearby. "Who are you people and what are you doing here?"

The speaker was dressed in military fatigues and carried an automatic weapon and a flashlight. He was walking up the path to the house and was accompanied by three other men, similarly dressed and armed. Angel and the group had come up through the sewers into the grounds of the Sunnydale Slayer HQ. When they arrived the grounds had looked empty but now it seemed that the military was patrolling. Of course at first sight it was not at all clear whose military was involved.

"We live here," said Xander. "Who are you and what are you doing in the grounds of our home?"

"Put your hands up," ordered the speaker, an officer by the bars on his shoulder. As he did so he aimed his weapon at Xander. His companions spread out behind him and pointed their guns at the group. "I'll be asking the questions."

"No you won't," said Connor who suddenly moved forward and began striking out with hands and feet at the military patrol.

The soldiers lost valuable moments trying to get their weapons to work. But the grounds of the Slayer HQ, like the building itself, were spell protected. Guns would not work there. So the soldiers, despite their unarmed combat training, provided little resistance to Connor and were soon all lying unconscious on the ground.

Giles looked at the unconscious soldiers lying in front of him. Should Connor have done that he wondered? Probably yes he quickly concluded. They can't be acting for anybody on our side. General Hammond and his troops were not scheduled to be in Sunnydale, at least not yet and maybe not at all if everything went to plan. And anyway he thought, even if they're friendly we don't want to be detained for questioning or locked up 'for our own safety.'

"OK, what's done is done," said Giles. "Let's go inside, see what's happening there and if possible take over the defences of this place. If there's one patrol there'll be others before long. We don't want them coming in the house."

"Connor, since you knocked them out you're the one to stay here and watch these men," ordered Angel. "We can't leave them at the mercy of any passing demons. But when they wake up tell them to get out of here before you come inside."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Apophis didn't waste any time. As soon as he received the reports of unusual activity being detected on Kallistien he gave his orders. And unusual activity it certainly was, unusual and probably threatening. A massive power source of unknown origin had suddenly begun registering on the instruments of all of the Goa'uld fleet.

Readings on their instruments had gone from nothing to off the scale with no gap in between. This was almost certainly not a natural phenomenon, even on a planet as strange as Kallistien. As well as reporting to Apophis what they had detected the ship commanders at the same time gave him their almost unanimous opinion that the power source they were detecting most likely marked the location of some sort of weapon which would be used to defend the planet.

The new power source was not in the same place as the focus of the force that had previously caused so much trouble. But that didn't mean it wasn't the same sort of thing or something even more dangerous. If it was something to do with Kallistien magic then most likely it was something the Goa'uld fleet would not be able to combat.

There were no witches on any of Apophis's ships except for those imprisoned on his flagship. Those witches were no longer co-operating, something Apophis intending doing something about in due course. But for the moment there was no prospect of any sort of magical defense by the Goa'uld fleet.

Apophis's officers were worried that their ships would very soon be attacked or trapped by a force from which they could not break free before crashing. Apophis was of the same opinion. Maybe the weapon used previously had simply required recharging and was now up and running once again. Maybe the Kallistien witches had just needed to take a break and were now back working again.

But even if the danger was not as serious as before nobody suggested waiting to find out. Apophis confirmed the orders he had previously issued if such a threat arose again. In response all of his ships turned away from the planet and sped at full speed away from Kallistien on course to leave the star system as quickly as possible. As soon as they were able they would jump away.

Since Apophis in his flagship had remained on the edge of the system he had the best chance of getting away. But he wanted to save his fleet as well if at all possible so on his orders the fleet not only headed away from the planet but scattered in all directions as it did so in an effort to minimise the effect of any weapon that was targeted on them.

But Apophis did not intend this retreat to be any sort of a defeat. If he couldn't control Kallistien then nobody would. As his ships turned away they followed their orders and discharged all of their remaining missiles directly towards the power source down on the planet. The combined firepower would be enormous, even more so since the entire barrage was timed to arrive and detonate at the same time.

This massive attack might be sufficient to destroy all life on the planet forever or even blow the planet to dust. If Apophis couldn't control the magic planet and the witches living there he did not want to take the chance that somebody else would be able to do so.

In particular Apophis did not want the Kallistians to provide any help to his enemies, Goa'uld or non-Goa'uld, in the future whether willingly or unwillingly. And anyway he might just kill O'Neill and the rest of SG-1 at the same time as he destroyed the planet. If SG-1 were stuck on the planet without a working Stargate they would die along with everybody else. Personal grudges always figured highly in the motives of the Goa'uld.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Down on the planet the Key was now fully active or at least that is how things looked to those watching. Power from the energy source at the center of the witches' circle now shot up into the sky in a solid, bright, emerald green column about the width of a large tree. The sound of the energy stream was a modest hiss, punctuated by occasional loud cracks and bangs as large sparks shot up and out from the column at irregular intervals. As the column rose higher and higher it spread out and gradually turned the whole sky emerald green.

Vala had walked away from the circle of witches and was now watching from what she hoped was a safe distance. She was torn between wanting to know what happened next and getting to a place of safety. But as she stood and watched the green energy pouring up into the sky she wondered whether anywhere on the planet would be truly safe from whatever happened next. Had she escaped to this planet, this universe, only to be present when it was destroyed?

One moment Vala had been talking to Dawn as they had walked through the park in that other version of Kallistien. The next moment the two of them had found themselves elsewhere standing in a large woodland gathering of people, most of them women.

"Is this the place you've been trying to get to?" Vala had asked Dawn. Dawn had not responded. "Is this your home universe?" Vala asked but even as she asked she realised that it was a stupid question. Dawn would not be able to answer that straight way.

Vala hoped that the expected jump to Dawn's original Kallistien had now happened just as they had planned. Otherwise this was just the next version of Kallistien in the series that Dawn was already visiting and Vala might just have joined Dawn on her possibly endless journey from world to world.

What had surprised Vala was that the relocation was immediate, with no transition or 'special effects' by way of worm holes or portals. One moment they were back there, the next they were here, with no transition of any sort.

"Dawn?" Vala said because the young woman had still not responded. She had said nothing at all since they arrived.

Dawn had just stood and stared towards the center of the gathering and at the bright green energy source shining there. And as Vala had looked more closely at the still silent Dawn she was able to see what was most likely the same green energy shining brightly from Dawn's eyes. Dawn gave no indication that she had heard the questions. She seemed to be listening to and concentrating on something else entirely.

Is she possessed in some way Vala had wondered? She could see that there was no point in saying anything more to Dawn. Dawn could not hear her, did not even appear to know Vala was there. As Vala watched Dawn had walked forward and took the hands of two other young women to join an inner circle around the glowing energy.

A disturbance amongst the people nearby now attracted Vala's attention and she turned to see what was happening. The people standing outside the circle watching events unfold were hurrying out of the way of something. And then Vala saw what it was; a Stargate.

A Stargate? Presumably the local Stargate placed on this planet thought Vala. It appeared to be slowly floating towards the circle of witches. There was no visible means of elevation or propulsion, the Gate just floated serenely forward as if it were a balloon made to look like a Stargate. But it too was surrounded by a bright green energy glow. A world of magic users thought Vala. But why do the witches want to include the Stargate in whatever it is they're doing?

But as the Stargate floated over the heads of the witches forming the outer circle they seemed to be as surprised as anybody. Whatever was happening, it was not a part of their plans. Something, perhaps that glowing energy source in the middle of the circle, was attracting the Stargate to it. But who was controlling that energy? Who was in charge?

The center of the inner circle, the source of the green glowing energy, was indeed the destination of the Stargate. As Vala watched, the Gate disappeared from sight within the glowing brightness. It didn't actually disappear but rather could no longer be seen against the bright green glare. As Vala watched with her eyes shaded against the glare she realised that the green glow had been slowly expanding. Soon it completely obscured all sight of Dawn and the other young women in the inner circle surrounding it.

"I wonder if we'll ever see that again?" said a voice from beside her. "Probably better if we don't. From what I can see Stargates are just another way of bringing more trouble to a world."

Vala turned to look at the blond young woman now standing next to her. Not surprisingly she did not recognise her. "And why would you say that?" asked Vala. "Is it because it brought you here?"

The other woman smiled. "Actually no. Last time I arrived I came through a Hellmouth after I struck a deal with a Hellgod. But I'm hoping that doorway won't be opened again either. If all this business with the Key goes according to plan then nobody else can arrive or leave by Stargate, Hellmouth or any other way. And that's just fine with me. I've got too many enemies other places," said Eve.

"The Key?" asked Vala.


	68. Opening and Closing

**Chapter Sixty Eight: Opening and Closing**

"Communications are now completely down. We have no contact with the outside world, and no contact with our other units in the town," said Captain O'Hare in her verbal report to Colonel Knight. Colonel Maybourne was also present and listening to the report in the makeshift command post.

"No word from any of our people outside the central area of the town after that first garbled message about monsters," continued the Captain. "And either our foot messengers haven't got through or they haven't got back. Radio is jammed and cellphones are not working. We don't know what's going on outside the area controlled by Headquarters Company but even in that area we've had reports of monsters."

"What sort of monsters?" asked Knight only to be interrupted by Maybourne.

"Does it matter?" asked Maybourne. "My orders to you are perfectly clear. You take control of that large house across the street and you do it now. We've got to control that place. That's the center of everything that's going on. That's why we're here."

"And can you tell me who's controlling it now? Who are we going to take control of it from?" asked an increasingly annoyed Knight. "What's their number? What's their armament? Are there any mines or other buried traps? Are there any types of monster in there?"

"We sent a patrol into those grounds a while back but we've had no contact with them. They're overdue," said Captain O'Hare.

"Gunfire? Any indication of a fire-fight?" asked Knight.

O'Hare shook her head. "Nothing," she said. "It's like everything else in this damned town. You send somebody off and you don't hear from them again."

"Listen!" said Knight sharply and everybody stopped talking. "That's gunfire, automatic weapons." He turned to his right. "And it's coming from a mile or two to the south. We have people there. They need our help." As he spoke the gunfire stopped.

"You don't know that," said Maybourne. "They might just be warning somebody off. But it doesn't make any difference anyway. They've got to look out for themselves. We can't afford the time and resources to divert from our main mission. You're not here to run around town looking after each other."

"Mutual support...," began Knight but he was interrupted before he could make his point because at that moment the ground began to shake. Everybody assumed it must be yet another earth tremor and did what they always did at times like that. They rushed outside. But this time the earth shaking just went on and on, and now it was accompanied by a low but rising rumbling coming from somewhere vaguely below ground.

"What is that?" asked O'Hare pointing across the road to where the Slayer HQ was situated behind its tall perimeter wall. The rumbling and shaking went on.

A bright green glow could now be seen surrounding that part of the house which showed above the walls. Either the house was giving off the light which produced the glow or the glow represented something which now surrounded the house. Everybody looked at Colonel Maybourne.

"How do I know?" said Maybourne with a shrug. "All I know is there's a dangerous alien artefact in that building and we've got to get hold of it." Maybourne deliberately did not use the word Stargate. He didn't want to give out any clue as to the type of artefact he was after and anyway it was no business of Knight and his troops.

"You want us to go in there?" asked Knight. "Even though you don't know what that is? What if it's some sort of dangerous radiation?"

"Did you think joining the army meant you were going to live forever?" replied Maybourne sarcastically. "You want to be safe and sound in your bed you're in the wrong business. Get your men together. We're going inside and we're going to do it now. If you won't follow my orders I'll find somebody who will."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After landing with his company in a park in the west of town and setting up a communication center there for his unit Lieutenant Ritter had been ordered to lead a patrol into the streets nearby. The orders from the company commander were to be alert for hostiles and to detain for questioning anybody who did not have a good explanation for being on the streets so late.

The orders issued to the company had been to secure that part of the town and deal with any hostile elements. The patrol led by the lieutenant was therefore only one of a number sent out by the company commander at the same time in different directions.

Curiously nobody had been briefed about what was happening in the town. Ritter knew his Captain knew no more than he did. But the general assumption amongst the soldiers was that martial law had been declared because of serious rioting or gang activity. So far they had not found any trace of any such problems and seen no evidence of damage caused by rioters.

The patrol had begun as just a quiet walk through deserted and darkened streets. But that rapidly changed when the patrol finally met somebody, or rather several somebodies. A group of young men and women were hanging around outside the entrance to a local churchyard. Why they would be there in the middle of the night wasn't at all obvious.

For all appearances the group was composed of a perfectly normal group of young people and Ritter, not expecting anything else, assumed it was a local gang. However badass the members of a gang thought they were they would not be a problem for a highly trained military unit thought the lieutenant.

At his signal Sergeant Hastings stepped forward to challenge the group but before he could open his mouth everything changed. All at once the people in front of them changed from perfectly normal people into something quite different and quite monstrous. Their faces changed and they all displayed long fangs. As the sergeant jumped back away from them the monsters unhurriedly came forward towards the soldiers with obviously hostile intent.

Without orders being given the soldiers reacted to what they had seen and fired at the creatures. But although the bullets struck home and in some cases knocked the creatures down none of them were stopped permanently. Even those which were filled with bullets from automatic fire simply got back to their feet and continued advancing towards the soldiers who were all now backing away. That's when things got really hairy and the fighting became hand to hand.

Unless badly outnumbered Special Forces fighting hand to hand would usually be no contest against nearly any enemy in the world. Any human enemy that is. But the only humans involved in the fight were the soldiers and they were now up against creatures faster and stronger than any human. Creatures that seemed to be immune to harm. But nevertheless the soldiers were too well trained to panic as they put their training into effect.

"Bullets don't work on these things," shouted the sergeant. "Fix bayonets and remember your training. No more shooting but you can still use your guns to defend yourselves. Use the butt and the blade."

"And stay together, close support," shouted the lieutenant. "Don't let anybody get isolated."

The soldiers had been trained to work together in ad hoc fighting groups of two or three when necessary. They now used their guns as clubs, some with and some without a bayonet attached. But already two soldiers were down with creatures over them.

But the soldiers were not helpless and the other soldiers, acting together, drove the creatures back and helped their comrades to their feet. The creatures were formidable individually but were less dangerous than they might have been because they did not seem to have a leader and did not co-ordinate their attacks.

After the initial combat the two groups withdrew from each other to regroup and assess what they were up against. A quick glance told the lieutenant his men had injuries, there was some blood flowing, but nobody was down. He ordered his corporal to radio for backup from the rest of the company while the sergeant kept everybody in line with bayonets and guns facing the enemy. But while the corporal tried to get a response it soon became apparent it wasn't just the soldiers who were expecting reinforcements.

Over the next few minutes things began to get worse for the patrol because more of the creatures began to arrive to join their colleagues and as yet there was no sign of any other soldiers. Nor could the corporal get a response from his radio. In the pause in hostilities Ritter was able to hear weapons fire from at least two other places. His was not the only patrol to run into trouble. Reinforcements might not be available and he couldn't rely on help being attracted by the sound of gunfire. Perhaps, he thought, it had been the gunfire that had attracted more hostiles.

As enemy numbers continued to increase the soldiers slowly backed away until they found themselves blocked from further retreat by another group gathering in the street behind them to match the growing mob that was now a few yards away in front of them. It seemed likely to the lieutenant that both groups of hostiles would soon rush his men. And maybe that is exactly what would have happened had the rules not suddenly changed.

Something now attacked the original group of hostiles, something that rapidly began to turn the creatures into puffs of dust. No bodies, just scattered dust or ashes in the air or on the ground. It wasn't even a contest because the sudden attack from the rear not only decimated what had previously seemed to be a formidable force of enemies but panicked those not immediately destroyed.

Although the lieutenant and his men did not know what was happening those being destroyed certainly did. And they knew that if they did not get away immediately they would be joining the dust on the ground. They were joined in their flight by those in the second group blocking the withdrawal of the patrol. That group too began to rapidly melt away as soon as they saw what was happening.

As the number of enemies in front of them continued to reduce, the watching soldiers were able to see what was happening. The creatures that had decided to stay and fight were being stabbed by what appeared to be three rather small young women wielding some sort of small hand held weapons. One stab and what had been a dangerous enemy joined the others who were now just dust on the wind. And if the creatures had been fast and dangerous the women seemed to be faster and a lot more dangerous, at least to the creatures.

Finally there were no more enemies, just piles of dust and the distant figures of fleeing monsters.

Lieutenant Ritter doubted that any US Army unit had ever fought an action like the one just completed. Crazy didn't even begin to describe it. Just what sort of an insane asylum sort of town was this anyway? He cautiously walked forward to speak to one of the strange young women who were now standing and looking around, considering their next move. A woman with long blonde hair.

"Sorry General," said Buffy. "Can't stop. We've got a lot more soldier boys to save."

And without any more pausing for breath the three women turned and ran off after the fleeing monsters and towards the sounds of more gunfire. After a moment the lieutenant shouted orders to his men and set off at a run in the same direction after the rapidly disappearing women.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"OK, it's started," said Prue immediately she opened her eyes. "Now it's time we did our job."

Prue had been visiting Sunnydale via her astral form. But now she opened her eyes to see the familiar sight of the attic in the Halliwell Manor. At the same time she stood up and looked at her three sisters who had been waiting for her to consciously return to them.

"Is Leo alright?" asked Piper. "He is there, right?"

"Leo's fine," said Prue. "He's in the basement with all the others. Everything's going according to plan, so far. Well nearly everything."

"Nearly everything?" queried Phoebe.

"The Stargate. For some reason it's been drawn into the witches' circle where the Hellmouth is going to open," said Prue.

"Something Willow did?" asked Paige.

"I don't think so," said Prue. "She seemed to be pretty busy working with the others to open the Hellmouth without letting things get out of control."

"Maybe an unseen player in the game," suggested Phoebe.

"Oh yeah, that's all we need," said Paige. "Somebody else getting involved and we don't know what side they're on." She continued by turning to Phoebe and asking: "Aren't we overdue for a glimpse of the future, guidance from on high and all that?"

Phoebe shrugged. "I'm getting nothing. Maybe whoever sends the visions knows no more than we do?"

"Or maybe there are so many possible outcomes at the moment that it's just not possible to give you a glimpse of what's likely to happen," said Prue. "Things are happening too fast."

"Well we can't just stand around here yakking," said Piper. "We'd better get busy if we're gonna to do our bit."

The role of the witch sisters was damage limitation. The increasing seismic disturbances which had developed in the past few days were now having a major affect on the whole of California and their influence was spreading even further afield. The four sisters now studied a large map on the table in front of them and Phoebe's three sisters looked at her.

Phoebe closed her eyes, trying for a vision. She was trying to get a read on the epicenter of the next major quake. If she could do that then Paige would orb the sisters to that location, or as near to it as possible. The four sisters would then carry out a Power of Four spell to try to damp down the quake as much as possible.

Nobody expected the sisters to be able to stop the earth movements altogether. The plan was to make things move much more slowly and smoothly and avoid a large part of the destructive affect of each quake.

"OK, got one," said Phoebe. "There!" she added and placed her finger on the map. Paige, stood next to her, studied the location.

"Right, hold tight," said Paige. "Let's go."

And the four sisters disappeared in an orb.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That was criminal," said Buffy. "They had no idea what they were up against. If we hadn't been there they would have all died."

"Or worse," said Kennedy. "Don't you think Wolfram and Hart planned on turning a lot of those boys? Well trained soldier vampires would suit them very well."

"They didn't expect us to be here," said Faith. "We messed up that part of their plan anyway."

Buffy hoped that the various groups of soldiers in the town would now stop walking the streets and making themselves easy targets. The three slayers had rescued several groups of soldiers from fights with mainly vampires but also a few demons. They had deliberately not stayed to chat. But Buffy had briefly told some of the officers to take their men to somewhere they could defend easily or get out of town. But she knew the chances of soldiers taking orders from her were effectively zero.

"We must have dusted hundreds of vamps tonight," said Faith. She knew she was exaggerating a little but they all knew they had never before staked so many in such a short time. "I wonder if it ever happened" she added quietly to herself.

"If what ever happened?" asked Kennedy.

"I wonder if a slayer ever came close to wiping out all the demons and vamps," replied Faith. "Because it would be sort of like a hunter wiping out all the game animals. When they're all gone what're you gonna do? How can you be a slayer without something to slay?"

"I don't think we need worry about that," said Buffy. "It's so not gonna happen. I don't think we've even scratched the surface."

"You think? Well we got rid of a lot of them when we shut down the Hellmouth. Now we're cutting them down even more," said Faith. "A lot of those who stayed out of town last time have come here expecting to see the new Hellmouth. And we've cut out a lot of them in the last few hours."

"Yeah, but it's a big bad world out there," said Kennedy. "Lots of places for creatures like that to hide. Hide and breed or hide and sire. Cut down on the number of predators and you make more room for those who are left. Law of nature says they increase their numbers to fill the gaps."

"You think?" asked Faith. "But up until recently there was only one slayer, one at a time. And that was enough to keep a lid on things. Now there are three of us. Stands to reason we must be having an impact. We might get to the point of seeing the last of them. Especially with Willow and all the other witches lending a hand."

"So what are you saying? Go easy on the monsters in case they die out? You want to found the Preservation of Monsters Society?" asked Kennedy with a laugh.

"I'm just saying, when we were on that other planet and couldn't kill anything I became, um, itchy. Don't deny it. You guys did too. You've enjoyed what we've been doing here tonight as much as I have," said Faith. "It's what we were born for."

"There are other things besides slaying," said Buffy.

"Laying?" suggested Kennedy with a smirk.

Buffy shrugged. "If you like," she said. "Children and family. That's one possibility."

"Let's find something else to kill before Buffy starts knitting little booties," said Faith.

"Time to get ourselves over to the Slayer HQ I think," said Buffy. "If the new Hellmouth opens and the witches don't keep things under control we're gonna have a lot more slaying to do. That should make you guys happy."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back in the basement of the Sunnydale Slayer HQ things seemed to be getting out of control, out of anybody's control. Despite Lilah's assumption that the movement of the Stargate had been arranged by and was part of the plans of her enemies, Willow and the other witches working with her were as surprised as anybody by what was happening.

The movement of the Stargate coincided with the first sign of an opening of the new Hellmouth. A bright red disc had now formed within the circle formed by the magic users and it was slowly beginning to thin. As it did so the Stargate, instead of floating towards the circle as it had been doing, suddenly leapt forward into the centre of the circle.

Some of the magic users had to move quickly to get out of the way as the Gate moved past. As it arrived above the red disc, which was now glowing even more brightly, the Gate toppled over and lay over the opening Hellmouth. Everybody stopped what they were doing and stood back to see what happened next.

"Do you know what's happening?" Willow asked Tara who was stood next to her, but her partner shook her head. A glance around the room showed that everybody, including the other Whitelighters and the Wolfram and Hart mages, seemed to be equally bewildered by this unexpected event. Either that or somebody was good at hiding his or her true thoughts.

"No more than you. This looks like one of those things that will only make sense when we work things out later," said Tara.

"If there is a later," said Cordelia who had now joined the other two witches to watch what was happening.

As she continued to watch, Tara took hold of Willow's hand. If necessary she would orb her partner to safety almost instantaneously. But first they had to be ready to deal with any demons or monsters that came through the opening Hellmouth.

"You know, if anything comes up out of that Hellmouth they might just go straight through the Stargate," said Amy. "Whoever's on the other end is going to get a big surprise."

"So where is it connected to?" asked Willow.

"It isn't," said Fred from behind her. "It shut down just after it started moving."


	69. Green with Energy

**Chapter Sixty Nine: Green with Energy**

The Goa'uld missiles continued on their way. They were all set to detonate on their arrival at the target point on the planet of Kallistien and they were all programmed to arrive at the same time. The single target point for all of the missiles was the witches gathering where the Key had been activated. This was the point where the Goa'uld instruments showed the build up of a very strong power source. This was where they expected an attack to be launched at them.

The Kallistians knew of the risk from the Goa'uld but they had no technology to detect the approaching missiles and no technological defence shield. The small amount of equipment that had been left behind by SG personnel on their return to Earth was mainly communications equipment and was a help in detecting the ships of the Goa'uld fleet rather than the missile barrage. But anyway it provided no means to defend a planet from an attack of that sort.

If the missiles exploded as intended by the Goa'uld the effect could very well split the whole planet apart. The explosion of just one such missile, with its nuclear warhead, was sufficient to destroy a large city. Exploding all together at the same time and in the same place the combined chain reactions of the explosions had the potential to be far worse than that. Similar events in the history of the Goa'uld had left nothing behind but a scattering of debris, a new radioactive dust and asteroid field in orbit in place of a living planet.

But the planet Kallistien, the planet that was the target of this attack, was one of many planets called Kallistien. As part of the Multiverse an almost infinite number of planets called Kallistien were being attacked by the Goa'uld in much the same way at exactly the same time in a multitude of different universes.

Not every such planet no. The history of many Kallistiens was sufficiently different that eventually, along the continuum of the Multiverse a point was reached that was sufficiently different for there to be no attack. But the all but identical attacks undertaken in so many similar places had the potential for much more than the destruction of a single planet.

This was because of the activation of the Key, the multi-dimensional Key which was linked to all of time and space. The Key that even now, on many different Kallistiens at the same time, was active and expanding up towards the many different incoming nuclear missile barrages.

The same Key was now active in many different universes across time and space at the same time, linking them together in a way that had not happened before. What was involved was not separate Keys on separate planets. Just like there was a single Multiverse so there was a single Key.

And then it happened. On each planet at exactly the same time the incoming missile barrage reached the threshold of the expanding sphere centred on the Key. Expanding energy rising up met incoming potential energy coming down. The meeting triggered the premature detonation of the missiles outside the atmosphere of each of those many planets. To say that the consequences were immense would be a vast understatement.

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"Is it an attack?" asked Jack. "Where's it coming from?"

Jack O'Neill, in the absence of General Hammond, was currently in command of the SGC. He and the other members of SG-1 had received an emergency call to the control room. On arrival they had seen the Stargate, with the iris closed as usual, vibrating and threatening to break loose from its fixtures.

As well as shaking violently the Stargate had begun to glow and seemed to be surrounded by a green halo. That green glow was pulsing brighter and dimmer about twice every second.

"We don't seem to have a wormhole connection," said Sam staring at the console in front of her. "It makes no sense that any sort of energy should be able to reach us. But nevertheless the Stargate is being shaken about by the arrival of some sort of energy"

"This can't be a coincidence," said Daniel. "Just when things are going down in Sunnydale, just when everything is coming to a head, our Stargate starts to play games."

"We know the Stargate network has been affected by the magic events that are being dealt with by the witches," said Teal'c.

"That might be it," said Sam. "The whole Stargate network might be repositioning itself as part of the pressure release or whatever they're doing in Sunnydale."

"You don't think they're going to break our nice little Stargate network do you?" asked Daniel. "It wouldn't be the same without it."

"If they break it, they fix it," said Jack. "Either that or they'd better have good insurance."

At that moment the vibration stopped and the Gate room fell silent. The green glow disappeared and everything seemed once again to be normal. Normal that is for a Stargate that was not connected to a wormhole. But the perfect silence lasted only for an instant.

"Unscheduled Offworld Activation," said Sergeant Davis. "We have an incoming wormhole from Kallistien."

"Wow! That's off the chart," said Sam, staring at the screen in front of her.

"Meaning?" asked Jack.

"Meaning the energy coming along with that wormhole is more than we can measure," said Sam. "When it gets here..."

Sam stopped talking because now not only the Gate, not only the Gate room, but the whole SGC was glowing with a bright green energy.

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Dawn had been in a daze ever since she found herself transported back to what she had hoped was the original Kallistien. She had pretty well sleepwalked into the circle of young women surrounding the bright green glowing source which she vaguely presumed must have some connection to the Key.

But as she stood watching the power of the Key expand ever upwards her mind began to clear and Dawn began to wonder and question. Wait a minute. If that's the Key does that mean I'm not the Key? And who are these other girls? Are they Keepers of the Key or are they part of the Key as well? Are they other versions of me from different parts of time and space or different parts of the Multiverse? Are they just human aspects of the Key or are they separate from it?

Why can't Giles appear with one of his old books and explain everything like he used to do? Isn't there some dusty old prophecy that explains all this? Is this thing meant to be controlling me or am I meant to be controlling it?

And then the memories began. Memories of events that simply had not happened. Or rather had simply not happened to Dawn Summers, this Dawn Summers. Dawn began to remember things that must have happened in the lives of some of those other young women: Lives that were sometimes linked directly to the Key and lives that were sometimes nothing at all to do with it.

But it wasn't just the young women. Dawn began to remember older lives, long lives lived to old age. She remembered having children and grandchildren, husbands and lovers. She was being drowned in the flood of many memories, many lives, of other people. In a brief moment of clarity she worried that she was losing herself, losing her individuality in the swirl of knowledge about all the many people who had been, would be or still were part of the Key.

The multitude of memories seemed to drown out her senses. Dawn could no longer see or hear anything apart from the memories. She saw scenes lived by somebody else. She heard conversations spoken by others and by herself. But her mundane surroundings, her place standing in a circle in a field around a glowing Key, that was no longer in sight.

With an effort Dawn mentally pushed aside the experiences and events that were flooding her mind. "Does anybody here know what's going on?" she yelled. She thought she was shouting out loud but she heard no sound, not even the sound of her own voice.

The memories, the sound and vision, continued but they no longer threatened to overwhelm her. She was able to allow them to continue to flow through her mind without letting them take up all of her attention. All in the mind Dawn thought as she gradually became more aware of her surroundings once more. She now seemed to be floating in a glowing green mist. If she really concentrated and ignored the memories there seemed to be nothing else around, just the glowing mist with no up or down and nothing to distinguish one direction from another.

But Dawn's yell, such as it was, and after a short delay, produced multiple echoes. Or rather it provoked a similar call for attention from many of the other women who were floating in the green mist with her. Dawn could hear but not see any of them. They all had the same question but none of them had the answer. Like Dawn they were absorbing memories of many different lives but nowhere in those memories was a beginning or any sort of explanation of the Key and what was happening now.

And then Dawn began to get angry. This is ridiculous she thought. Why doesn't somebody just explain what's going on? If I'm the Key or part of the Key or linked to the Key somehow there must be some way I can control what's happening. Why should I just be a part of somebody else's plan? I've had that before and it sucks.

As the emotions built up inside her Dawn began to feel more confident. She found that she was now able to move. She had begun to walk forward before she realised that she had something to walk on. She started to walk forward through the mist, now determined to find out exactly what was going on and what was happening to her.

As she continued to walk Dawn began to hear a voice talking, the voice of a woman. It took a few moments to realise that the voice was inside her head and that she was remembering a conversation that she had all but forgotten:

"We find the best way to recruit new Guardians is to chose suitable close relatives of a Slayer," said Grandma Summers. "That's how I was recruited. But I'd better start at the beginning. You need to know exactly who the Guardians are and how it all started..."

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"They can hit that door all night, they won't get in," said Xander. "After the last time this place was attacked, Willow and Tara beefed up all the defences. It's not just construction, good though that is, it's magical protection as well."

Xander, Angel and the others in their party had made it inside the Slayer HQ and Xander had gone straight to the Control Room where he could control the defences. He was now examining the various CCTV screens of the areas outside the building. Angel and most of the others had gone down to the basement to see what was happening there and whether any assistance was needed.

"There's a lot of activity out there," said Connor looking over his shoulder. "Military activity."

Connor had been the only other person not to go downstairs. He had no interest in seeing what the magic users were up to. Whenever possible he steered clear of getting involved in magic.

"Don't mean they're on our side though," said Xander. "Who knows what they've been ordered to do. Hey I wonder if Willow's magic could stop a tank?"

Connor glanced sceptically at Xander. "Do you want to find out?"

"I suppose not," shrugged Xander. "A tank would make a mess of the garden out there and Buffy wouldn't be happy about that."

Connor looked over his shoulder at the open door behind them which led to the corridor and the staircase to the basement.

"You know things are awfully quiet down there," he said. "Maybe I'd better go see... What's that?"

As Connor and now Xander watched, the corridor outside the door filled with a green glow and the green began seeping into the room through the doorway. There was no other way out of the room, not even a window. Or rather no other exit. Thinking quickly Connor decided to punch another exit through the wall opposite to the door.

But as if in response to his efforts to escape the green glow suddenly rushed into and filled the room. Connor had only got as far as making superficial damage to the wall before he was stopped in his tracks. Now Xander and Conner were unmoving in the glow filled room.

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"How do we know?" asked Paige. "I know we all agreed it was a good idea to stay out of it until things played out in Sunnydale but we can't just wait until... until, well until the world is destroyed. This might be the biggest mistake we've ever made."

"I think we'd notice if the world was destroyed, don't you," asked Piper. "We all agreed it was best that somebody stayed clear of the new Hellmouth, just in case of uh, unexpected developments."

"No, she's right," said Phoebe. "We've got to be there. We don't know what's happened there and if it's gone according to plan. Without Leo to keep us in touch with the big picture we might wait too long. And Leo should have reported back by now if everything was OK."

"Well, if things go right they said they'd call us or Leo would orb in," said Prue. "But that won't happen I suppose if everything goes to hell, so to speak."

"I could try to project again," added Prue after a moment but she didn't sound enthusiastic. The others shook their heads. The last couple of times Prue had tried that she had been unsuccessful. Whatever was blocking out Sunnydale now seemed to have the Astral Plane blocked as well.

"I think we would have heard something from them by now if it all went according to plan," said Paige anxiously.

"OK, Paige, can you orb us to Sunnydale?" asked Prue. "Just the outskirts to start with. We can at least see if the town's still there of if the Hellmouth has taken over."

"We'd better be ready to fight as soon as we arrive," said Phoebe. "Who knows what sort of creatures might have come out of the Hellmouth and be roaming around town."

Paige held out her arms, her sisters gathered together and they all embraced. Paige orbed and the four witch sisters found themselves on the side of a main road leading into Sunnydale. But there was no immediate need for self-defence.

There was nobody in sight. Since this was the middle of the night that was far from unusual but not only were there no people anywhere in sight, there were no creatures of the night in evidence either as they looked down on the town from the hill on which they stood.

The town in front of them looked to be a perfectly normal, peaceful, small Californian town in the early hours of the morning well before dawn. Normal that is for a town without any electricity, without any street lights visible and with no lights showing anywhere.

Or rather not quite anywhere. For somewhere in the middle of the town, easy to see because of the lack of any other lighting was a bright green glow.

"Let's get closer," said Prue to Paige. "Closer to that glow."

Paige found that she was unable to orb any closer but walking and running was not blocked. The four sisters therefore set off at a jog towards their destination.

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From space the view of the planet available to the crews of the fleeing Goa'uld fleet was totally obscured by the huge fireball that now filled that part of space. The detonation had been premature according to the time the missiles had been timed to arrive at ground zero. But nobody in the fleet was in any doubt, the planet had been totally destroyed. And on numberless Kallistiens in many sister universes the Goa'uld and their people reached the same conclusion.

The fireball was not going to disappear overnight. It would continue to expand for some time to come before it completely dissipated into a debris field. There was no need for the Goa'uld to stick around and pick up the pieces. All that would be left when everything eventually cooled down would be chunks of rock, large and small and lots and lots of dust and radiation. And there was plenty of that all over the universe.

The explosion had been far greater than expected. The assumption was that whatever it was that the Kallistians had been doing to combat the Goa'uld had combined with the exploding missiles into a single mega-explosion. Some in the fleet had been present when other planets had been incinerated. Those explosions had been nothing like this. Chalk off one planet from the list of populated worlds.

But this time things were very different to other planet buster events. This time magic and the Key were involved. This time the planets in the different universes were not destroyed. Behind the expanding fireball each planet was totally unharmed. This time the Goa'uld had been deceived. They were no longer aware of the existence of the planet of magic users and that was just the way the witches of Kallistien and the Key wanted it.

But that wasn't the only thing that the Key was doing with all of that energy, it was just a small part of what was happening. The energy from the exploding fireball above the planet, instead of obliterating the planet and everybody on it, had been sent in other directions and to other places. The visible fireball above the planet was just a small and very temporary part of the continuing reaction produced by the Key.

Although the conflagration above Kallistien was immense in terms of the individual planet, in the greater scheme of things the energy released by the exploding fireball was the merest spark, no more than the initial charge which the Key used to send out and seek links to much greater sources of power. The Key's main purpose in using all this energy was to put things right in the Multiverse. That was why the Key existed in the first place although this time the use of Key had been the source of the trouble in the first place.

The Key needed energy but it also needed intelligence and direction. And that was why the gathered Keepers of the Key, people like Dawn, including Dawn herself, were a vital part of the process. Linked to and merging with the Key the purpose of the Keepers was to provide direction, to ensure that what had been started was not a random explosion of energy but instead was something that would be directed to the greater good. The greater good of the Multiverse that is, and the creatures who inhabited it.

It was this benign part of the process of the operation of the Key that had been usurped by Glory a few years before in order to open the gates between worlds and dimensions and which had been the origin of the problems of the Multiverse. The Glory that had survived so long and had been corrupted so much by her life in a Hell dimension no longer had had any concept of the greater good.

The problems within the Multiverse that this had caused were now being put right. Because now the Key began to link through the Stargate system via its linked gate matrix. Or rather into the many linked gate matrices within the many different universes of the Multiverse.

And not just the gate matrices. The worm holes opened by the gates were just a part of the bindings of the Multiverse. Other links, other short cuts, other types of wormhole were also vital. Thus it was that power began to flow through other, natural wormholes, some in deep space and others on planets. And those most unusual of all wormholes, often called Hellmouths, were also affected and began to play their part.

With all the links activated and energised the many long dormant conduits of power started to have their affect. Slowly, but gradually gathering pace, the shape of the Multiverse began to be restored. This did not involve the movement of individual galaxies and stars across and within the universes. It meant adjusting the shape of each universe back to the way it should be. The process to restore and reset things back to the way they were was now in progress.

But as things continued there was one place where things were not right. One planet in one universe was not responding in the way designed. One location on one planet was causing a glitch. A glitch which if not corrected could cause everything to unravel. The link between Sunnydale and the newly opening Hellmouth was not reacting in the way it should. The power going into that location was not doing what it was meant to do. It was being diverted in some way and for some different purpose.


	70. Close to the End

**Chapter Seventy: Close to the End**

The rift was wide open. The open rift otherwise known as the Hellmouth which now led through to Earth from the Hell Dimension on the other side in fact from the underworld now connected to the world above. But there was no sudden rush through the new portal. No sudden flooding of hell creatures into the upper world. Because that was not the plan.

Or at least that was not the first part of the plan. Waiting patiently in the Hell Dimension below was the creature known to his followers as Satan. It was not the only name he had ever used and he was far from the first creature to use this old name for the Devil but it gave everybody a good idea of who he was, which was why he liked it. It made it clear to his followers and everybody else just where he stood in the eternal struggle between good and evil.

This Satan was not in any sense a fallen angel. He had never been any sort of an angel but he was a great deal more than a powerful demon. He had long since established rule of his own Hell Dimension, a very different Hell Dimension to the one that had previously been linked to the Earth through the Sunnydale Hellmouth.

And there was the double cross. The double cross that had been brokered by Wolfram and Hart. They had agreed to help the Forces of Light reopen the Hellmouth in Sunnydale and that is exactly what had happened. They had stuck to the letter of the agreement in that they had indeed taken part in the reopening of the Hellmouth. But the Hellmouth now led to a quite different place, a quite different Hell.

It was that difference which was now disrupting the reestablishment of the equilibrium of the Multiverse. For Wolfram and Hart had done a deal with Satan. The Hellmouth was indeed the same but the Hell it led to was not. Across many universes the forces released and channelled by the Key were now at work to put everything back in place. But with this particular Hellmouth now leading to a different place everything could no longer link up in the same way as before.

The Key gradually became aware of the difference and slowly started work to adjust things accordingly. Once adjusted the new connection would be part of the new reality and the new Hell Dimension would remain linked to that Earth, with catastrophic consequences for the inhabitants. But at least the Multiverse itself would be saved and overall things would go on much as before, with just one relatively small victory for the forces of evil.

But that was when a part of the Key called halt. The intelligences that formed a part of the Key didn't know all that had happened but they knew enough to smell a rat. And that part of the Key called Dawn Summers began to take a personal interest in what was going on in what she still thought of as her home world.

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The sounds of firing, which had been coming from all over the town, now died down and stopped completely. The other disturbing noises coming out of the night; shrieks, screams etc, also stopped. For the first time that night Sunnydale became completely silent.

But it was not the normal silence of the early hours of the morning in a small American town. Somehow the silence seemed to have been imposed on the town. At just about the same time everybody in town, everybody and everything, seemed to get the message that something was about to happen, something big. Suddenly everybody and everything was holding its breath.

Some scientists claim that animals are aware of pending natural catastrophes like earthquakes a little ahead of when they actually hit. Whether that is true or not it seemed that everybody in town, human and non-human alike, had somehow gotten some sort of message about a pending event. 'It' was just about to happen. But nobody had any idea of exactly what was going to happen, just that things were going to change.

Inside the Slayer HQ things had been silent already for a little while. Everything inside the building was frozen in place. In the basement the witches and the Wolfram and Hart mages were standing around the newly formed Hellmouth and the Stargate was lying on top of it.

Those not involved in the magic spell casting including the military unit from Stargate Command were also in an immobile stasis and most of them, like the frozen witches and mages, were held in place in the act of looking at the Sunnydale Stargate lying in front of them. Everybody had been caught in place while they were watching events, planning or making their next move. But nobody now moved or made a sound. Time for them was frozen.

Also inside the building the newly arrived group led by Angel were either upstairs or held in place on the stairs leading down to the basement. Nobody was capable of movement, nobody was capable of thought. They were all in a green stasis within the green glowing energy coming out of the Hellmouth.

Outside the grounds of the building a cordon of soldiers had formed, but despite orders to advance into the building nobody had done so even though the soldiers were not actually held in stasis themselves. It was as if some silent but heard command had been issued to countermand the order to enter. And like all of the others Colonel Maybourne now stood silent and watched the HQ and waited for developments.

Perhaps the last persons moving in town were the three Slayers and the four witch sisters. The two groups arrived almost at the same time outside the Slayer HQ from different directions. But like everybody else they simply stopped and stared and waited.

Unlike the people frozen in place inside the building those outside weren't frozen, not exactly. It was just that they had all silently decided not to actually do anything until whatever it was that was due to happen, actually did happen. Like all of the demons and vampires in town they were all somewhat hypnotised into waiting for whatever happened next.

But the stasis did not extend beyond the town. Many miles away the green glowing energy flooding Stargate HQ had only lasted for seconds before fading away. It had flowed through the base without freezing anybody in place. It had overflowed from the Stargate as a sort of side effect before disappearing again. With things back to normal Jack O'Neill had checked with all areas and made sure that there had been no damage and no casualties.

"So is that it?" asked Daniel, looking at Sam. "Does that mean things are back to normal? Was that a symptom of things being restored?"

"We need to find out what's happening in Sunnydale," said Jack. "Until then we're pretty much in the dark about how this is gonna play out."

"I can't get any reply from Sunnydale," said Sergeant Harriman who had been using both cellphone and radio. "And the lines are all dead."

"Perhaps we should go there," said Teal'c. "Things may not be going according to plan."

"There might be something we can do to establish contact, if the network's now working properly. That's to say working without magical assistance," said Sam thoughtfully, prompting Jack and the others all to look at her.

"We could try to dial out and see if the network's working," she said. "If it is we might be able to follow the others and eventually arrive in Sunnydale. Do you want me to try?"

"But if the network's working then our problems are solved anyway aren't they," asked Daniel. "And if it isn't then we can't do anything anyway."

"The network might be working but things could still be going wrong in Sunnydale," said Teal'c. "Are the witches not trying to open another Hellmouth? Will that not run the risk of having other undesirable creatures come to this world?"

"We discussed that with the witches didn't we?" asked Daniel. "They said they could take care of that sort of thing."

Jack had remained silent during this exchange, mentally considering the alternatives. One thing was sure. He was in charge in the SGC with Hammond away and he was not allowed to leave his post until Hammond returned. As for SG-1 going off without him...

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this," said Jack. "If we start sending people through the Gate before we get the all clear who knows where they'll end up. It's not like when we came through from Kallistien. We have the witches doing their thing. We stay put, at least until we get more news. We've got to trust the people there. From what I've seen they've got plenty of firepower."

Having said all that, Jack felt a little better. Maybe there is something to all that psychic mumbo jumbo after all he thought. If magic works then maybe going with your gut feeling is the way to go, at least when dealing with things like this.

Sam interrupted his chain of thought. "You know there's something we can do without taking any risks at all," she said. "And we don't have to leave Stargate Command."

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Seconds passed, or maybe it was aeons. It was hard to tell. Dawn felt as if she had just arrived but then again had she ever been anywhere else? She was both a part of the whole and separate from it. The Key was doing its work, what it was created to do and Dawn was the Key or at least she was a part of it. But at the same time she mentally stood apart from what was happening. She was both a spectator and a participant in a timeless event.

The Guardians were concerned solely with the Slayer back on Earth. They did what they could to make sure the Slayer and the Watchers' Council that supported the Slayer did what they were supposed to do. Dawn had been taught a lot about the Guardians, their history and duties. But now, with her link to the Key she saw that the Guardians, the Slayer and the Watchers, were all a part of something larger. They were part of the mechanism which kept things where they should be.

Demon realms should stay separate from Human realms. Human realms should stay separate from Higher 'Angelic' realms. There would always be a certain amount of leaking up and down across the borders, illegal immigration as it were. But the realms themselves should be kept separate.

The Slayers and the Watchers were sort of like immigration cops, policing the demons and other monsters that leaked through. Angels took an interest in the Human Sphere as a counter to the more powerful demon elements. Overall a rough balance was maintained, at least cosmically. And the balance was exactly what the Key had been created to maintain.

So who did the creating thought Dawn briefly before pushing the thought to the back of her mind. I don't have time for that she thought. I can't get involved in pondering the origin of the universe while things go to hell, or at least while my home, my friends and my sister go to hell.

Because Dawn was now aware of the problem and the problem was Earth, her Earth. A cosmic balance yes, but the cosmos, the Multiverse cosmos, was a pretty large place. Infinitely large in one sense. It was perfectly possible for the cosmos to be in balance overall but for there still to be all sorts of unbalanced places. And Earth was most definitely showing up as one of those places which were out of balance.

Knowledge of this was building up a frustration in Dawn, that part of Dawn that was watching the rest. Because there was nobody else. She was the Key and the Key was operating as it should but she was also Dawn and for Dawn things were most definitely not going as they should. Quite apart from the problem of the Earth Hellmouth Dawn didn't want to be part of the Key now and forever. She wanted to be Dawn. She wanted her life back.

Others had been involved in the process or rather still were involved in the process in the timeless and forever way of the Key. All this is making my brain hurt thought Dawn briefly as an aside. These other young women were also linked to the Key and like Dawn were in some way the Key as well. Dawn had seen them when she had arrived back on the original world of Kallistien. They were like Dawn and part of the process somehow. But they were no longer visible. Either they were now totally a part of the Key or they like Dawn were off somewhere anonymous and unknown conducting their own mental rebellion.

Dawn's awareness didn't any longer include seeing anything around her. From the perspective of the onlookers on Kallistien her body might still be standing in a circle in the grass amongst the other women. Or it might be floating around in some bland unknown Key dimension where Keepers went to unite with the Key or...

Dawn pulled herself away from that train of thought. The more she thought about all this the less she understood. The more she tried to understand the more she began to sink into becoming a part of the Key or becoming the Key itself. This wasn't surprising she supposed because to understand the Key she probably really had to be the Key and she didn't want that.

Yes, hopefully the Key seemed to be putting things back together again the way they should be and Dawn had a general sense of that happening. But what did that mean for planet Earth? What did that mean for her friends? What did it mean for her sister?

Did the Key have any idea of what was right and wrong? Would it care if there were casualties along the way? When Glory had used the Key to open the doors with other worlds it could have destroyed the Earth and the Key wouldn't have cared any more than any other tool or machine cared when it was being used for the purpose for which it was made. Or perhaps it did but not soon enough to stop it. It could clear up after the event but not act swiftly enough to block the original calamity.

Things were not going right on Earth, Dawn could feel that and she felt a growing urgency to do something about it. I do want to put things right she thought. But I don't care about the Multiverse and all that. Or rather I don't want to care about the whole Multiverse. The Key can take care of that. All I want to do is make sure things are put right back home. But what to do? And how to do it?

I'm gonna do something, thought Dawn. I'm not going to just stand, float, exist or whatever while things just happen. There must be something I can do to see what's going on. There must be some way I can influence the Key. Some way I can control it or at least control what I'm doing and where I am.

Why else am I a part of the Key she thought? Why those other women as well? Surely there has to be some sort of human input? There has to be some sort of human idea of right and wrong included in the process or why not just have the Key without any humans involved at all? Why not make the whole thing work automatically, like a sun burning or a galaxy revolving?

As the time raced or crawled by Dawn felt a growing tug. Something was pulling her towards...? It wasn't a physical tug but a mental one. Something was calling her to get her to move towards it mentally. But without knowing why, Dawn felt herself resisting. She didn't want to go. But did she have any choice? Was this a pull to merge with the Key? Was this something that would mean the end of Dawn as a separate person? Or was it a pull from her home, a pull to take her back to Sunnydale?

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Satan now began to move. He was in no hurry. After all, he had eternity before him. The link through to Earth now seemed to be secure and the join permanent. And if everything at the other end had gone according to plan there would be no opposition on the other side. Everybody at the other end of the Hellmouth would be in stasis as part of the Hellmouth set up.

In a way Satan was disappointed by this. It had been a long time since he had been really tested, since he had felt satisfaction at beating his enemies and destroying them. That was the trouble with trying to be omnipotent he thought. The better you got at it the more pointless everything became.

But maybe there would be opposition later, in the area outside the immediate vicinity of the Hellmouth he thought. It was a big world, with all sorts of powers, good, bad and otherwise. There must be something there that could test him. There might just be somebody there who was worth defeating. Satan could no longer even consider the possibility of defeat for himself. The most that he could anticipate was opposition that would last long enough to provide some entertainment.

Whatever opposition there might be would of course be weakened by the non-participation of whoever had joined in the Hellmouth reopening. They would no longer be a factor. Whoever was involved in that would soon be destroyed by Satan and the forces he would lead into the new demonic bridgehead he was about to establish.

On his order the waiting minions ranked some way behind him remained unmoving as Satan walked forward. He would have a look himself to confirm that all was well before personally leading his armies through into the upper world. He was confident that there would be nothing on the other side that could hurt him but no harm in a look first just to be sure. Once he knew exactly how things looked he could determine just how he wanted to proceed.

Walking forward became climbing upwards and then more walking but there was no barrier, nothing to cause any difficulty in moving towards the world above. Or rather there was no barrier in the way until Satan approached the entry point into Earth. There in front of him was a figure, a human sized and shaped figure which was stood just beneath the final opening up into the basement area where the Hellmouth had been opened.

As Satan continued forward he could see that it was a woman who was stood waiting for him. Could it be the Wolfram and Hart woman Lilah Morgan who had carried out the negotiations? Were the law firm having second thoughts or were they looking to increase their price at the last minute? He had heard of the reputation that Wolfram and Hart had acquired over the centuries and knew not to rule anything out.

With an effort Satan stopped himself from unleashing one of his fearsome rages. If Wolfram and Hart were indeed up to something he had to be prepared to think it through. He would fight them if he must but he saw no advantage in doing so unless he had to. Wolfram and Hart should be on the same side as he was. But that was in the long term. In the short term they might have very different ideas.

Satan came to a halt a few yards in front of the woman. Now he could see it was not Lilah Morgan, or at least it didn't look like her. But of course looks could be deceiving, something he had used to his advantage any number of times.

"Who are you and what do you want?" he asked. "And what are you doing here?"

"My name's Eve and I work for Wolfram and Hart," said the woman. "I'm a close associate of Lilah Morgan. I think you've met her."

"I knew another Eve once," said Satan untruthfully. He always thought it fun to keep up the pretence that he was the 'real' Satan. He thought it gave him an advantage, and besides it usually worried those he dealt with. "Explain yourself or get out of the way. I'm not going to renegotiate anything with Wolfram and Hart. Not now."

"I'm here to warn you," said Eve. "If you carry on through the Hellmouth you'll be destroyed. It has been foreseen. Much better for everybody if you go back to your own world and shut the door behind you."

"It sounds like you're threatening me" said Satan ominously. "You think you can do that after all I've done for you and your people? You'll need more than words to stop me going up there."

"Look, I'm trying to save you," said Eve. "I'm not making a threat. I'm telling you things have changed, or rather they are about to change. If you try to go through you'll be destroyed. That's just a fact, not a threat."

"Either you get out of the way or I will destroy you," said Satan, now in a fury and as he spoke he stepped forward and swung his arm to brush the woman from his path. But as he did so the woman faded away. Not a particularly impressive piece of magic, thought Satan, but something that an ordinary human, even a magically powerful human, should not have been able to do inside a Hellmouth.

But Satan didn't pause long in thought. There was no chance that he would be persuaded to go back to his own Hell Dimension, no chance at all. All the woman had achieved had been to anger him. But then perhaps that was the idea he thought as he started forward once again.

Eve reappeared behind the angry Satan. She turned and watched his back, a slight smile on her face. "Well he can't say I didn't warn him," she muttered quietly to herself. As she stood and watched, her appearance changed and then it was Dawn standing there, not Eve.


	71. All Quiet?

**Chapter Seventy One: All Quiet?**

In the basement of the Slayer HQ all was quiet. All the people present remained in stasis, caught like flies in amber within the green glow filling the building. The Wolfram and Hart mages and the alliance of witches were still spread in a circle around the newly opened Hellmouth, all of them looking down into the depths below but none of them moved a muscle, none of them consciously registered what they were looking at.

Within the Hellmouth far below but not yet in sight of anybody in the basement something stirred, a figure was moving and coming closer to breaking out into the world above. Had any of those watching been capable of viewing what was happening they would eventually have seen the giant figure of the Hellgod Satan coming closer, into sight below them.

It would be a squeeze but the large horned demon head and the massive shoulders would just about be able to fit through the opening of the Hellmouth. But just as Satan was about to take himself up through the opening he heard a voice from behind him, the voice of a young woman:

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The Demon Lord assumed that that it was the same young woman, Eve, who had spoken to him shortly before. But when he turned to look he was surprised to see a completely different young woman standing there, further down the slope leading up to the entrance to the world above.

"And who exactly are you," asked the Demon. "Where did you come from and how did you get here?"

"I'm the Key," said Dawn. "Or that's what everybody tells me. I'm sure you've heard of the Key, all the best Hellgods have. That means I'm in charge of all this, not you."

"You think you're in charge of me?" asked Satan, sounding amused. "Does that mean you intend to stop me? Just how do you expect to do that?"

"Me? I don't have to do anything," said Dawn with a smile. "It's already done. I'm just giving you a friendly warning to stay in your own world. You can go ahead if you like. It's your funeral."

Satan, although angry at this further attempt to stop him was no fool. He knew of the Key without understanding much about it and what it was for. He also knew that use of the Key a few years before by Glory had started off the current cosmic sequence of events. It was a powerful thing, maybe even more powerful than he was. He hesitated.

The Demon Lord wasn't simply a large version of an ordinary demon. He had more than extra pounds and extra muscle. He had considerable demon powers and he now used them to examine the woman in front of him. Was this an ordinary woman, perhaps a witch, or was she really something more as she claimed?

Something more was the quick conclusion, something much more. She seemed to have connections off in all directions at once. She seemed to be mystically linked in some way to just about everything and everywhere. Is this what the Key would look like? Could she really be the Key? And if she was what did it mean?

"Tell me more," said Satan. "What have I got to be afraid of? Why is the Key so concerned about my welfare?"

"There's no point in me saying any more," said the woman. "You wouldn't believe me. But I'm sure you'll believe this. There is a cosmic balance, that's why the Key exists, to keep that balance. The world up there is not your world, you know that very well. There are dangers there to your kind that you can't imagine. Stay here and carry on as Lord of all you survey or go up there and be destroyed." She shrugged. "It's your choice."

"I know all about that world," said Satan. "I'm not going into the unknown. I've had agents working for me for a long time. There's nothing there that can hurt me."

The woman smiled, shrugged and shook her head. "Well you can't say I didn't warn you. Anybody who relies on Wolfram and Hart gets what they deserve."

Although Satan had exerted his powers to keep the woman in place at that moment she disappeared, thus once again demonstrating her power and thus the seriousness of her warnings. This left Satan alone to think about his next move. He hadn't reached his present eminence by taking silly chances. And he hadn't ever made the mistake of thinking that the likes of Wolfram and Hart did anything but act in their own best interests rather than his. As always a basic weakness of the evil side of the universal spectrum was that nobody could afford to trust anybody else.

Satan reached a decision. He wouldn't go ahead himself. He would hold back and send some minions on ahead. After all what was the point of having uncounted legions of demons at his beck and call if he didn't use them? If things up there were safe for his demons they would be safe for him and his minions could make it even safer. He could go through after his forces had established a bridgehead.

Satan turned away intending to go back to speak to his chief commanders. But as he walked away from the Hellmouth he heard the sound of laughter behind him. Once again it was a woman only this time it was Eve who he saw when he turned round.

"It doesn't take much to stop you does it?" she said. "Just a few words and you run off with your tail between your legs. Hail the mighty Demon Lord!" and with that Eve gave a short mocking laugh.

"What game are you playing?" asked Satan and now he really was in a fury. "First you try to stop me and now you try to provoke me into going? What exactly do you want? What are you trying to do?"

"Little me?" asked Eve. "I'm just having fun. The Key and I decided to see how many times we could use just words to get you going back and forth here without actually doing anything. You ain't seen nothing yet."

In a sudden move Satan leapt towards Eve but as he reached the point where she was standing beneath the exit from the Hellmouth she vanished again. Once again a woman had defied Satan's powers because he had tried to keep her frozen in place. Without a pause Satan turned and fired a long blast of hellfire towards the woman as she reappeared along the corridor. But the fire washed through her insubstantial form leaving her unharmed. Whoever or whatever she was she did not have a corporeal body in that place that he could damage.

But Satan had ways of dealing with incorporeal beings and he strode towards the woman even as she stood there laughing at him once again.

"Here you go again," she said. "Back and forth, too and fro, never actually getting anywhere, never actually doing anything. Isn't this fun."

Satan now exerted his power to keep the incorporeal woman in place while he seized her, but nothing worked. This was not his Hell Dimension. It was not even the human world above, it was the interface between the two. Many of the powers that Satan could use down below or up above simply didn't work here. Or at least they didn't work against this woman, whoever or whatever she really was.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"There're all set," said Sam. "Shall I give the signal?"

Jack O'Neill looked around at the other members of SG-1 and the crew of the SG control room. Some nodded. There was no dissent. "OK," he said. "Go ahead."

Sam spoke into the microphone in front of her. "Orders are confirmed, go ahead. I repeat go ahead." She listened to the acknowledgement from the other end and then turned to Sergeant Harriman. "Close the wormhole," she ordered.

They all watched as the Stargate was shut down and the shield was closed.

"Now we wait," said Daniel.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Eve had disappeared again and once again Dawn appeared. Once again the actual appearance was behind Satan but he was immediately aware of it. He turned and saw Dawn standing underneath the Hellmouth opening into the world above.

"It's best if you put a guard on the Hellmouth at your end and make sure nothing and nobody comes through," said Dawn. "I belong in the world up there so you won't see me again."

Dawn once again disappeared but Satan, his demonic senses now fully alert and concentrated on the strange young woman was able to sense her essence as it rose up and went through the Hellmouth into the world above.

The Demon God paused and took stock before rushing off in one direction or another. He was still angry, very angry since he was not used to being mocked. Nobody in his realm would dare such a thing. But he was not too angry to think.

He could return back the way he came and order some of his minions to go through the Hellmouth ahead of him but he was now having second thoughts about that. It would make him look weak to them. Some amongst his more powerful subordinates might find out that he had been turned back by nothing more than a few words from a young human girl. Yes, she was much more than a human girl but it had been the words which had stopped him, not any display of the power of the Key.

Did he want to risk his subordinates thinking he was weak? They might get ideas of overthrowing him. Yes, he could deal with them but that would mean coming back down to the Hell world. He was about to take over the upper world. He did not want to fight for the world below at the same time.

Stick to the original plan he thought. It is what I have intended for a very long time. It is what I negotiated with Wolfram and Hart and I don't want to fall foul of one of their special contract clauses by changing things now. I will go through the Hellmouth now and nothing and nobody better get in my way If that woman or some other character appears again with some more clever words I shall simply ignore them.

With that Satan stalked forward until he was directly under the Hellmouth entry. Had anybody above and looking down been consciously aware they would have been able to see his massive figure below them as he reached the opening and looked up. At that exact moment the Stargate lying on top of the Hellmouth connected to a wormhole and the energy of the Stargate surged down and around the Hellgod.

As the surge from the wormhole extended it obliterated everything in its way, or at least that is what it usually did. This time things were different. They were different because of the power of the Hellgod. Because Satan knew all about Stargates and how they worked. He knew very well what would happen when a Stargate opened, what would happen to him if he was unprotected. But he was not unprotected, which was why he made no effort to avoid the downwash of the wormhole.

Satan gathered his powers in a shield around himself in the instant before the wormhole hit, having been warned of what was about to happen by the sound coming from the Gate. The wormhole washed in a wave around him but he remained safe and unhurt within it.

So that's the real reason those women, or perhaps that woman in two guises, had delayed him he thought. That's why she didn't want me to actually leave the area altogether in either direction. She wanted me standing in this exact spot at the moment the Stargate opened. Very clever. She expected me to be destroyed. Well she's going to be sadly disappointed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What do you mean it's disappeared," asked Jack O'Neil, speaking into the microphone in front of him.

"Everything went as planned up until we opened the wormhole to the Sunnydale Stargate," said the officer speaking to O'Neil from the Alpha Site through the now reopened SGC Stargate.

"But once the wormhole was open it sort of disconnected. We re-dialled but the system now tells us there's no such place. It's crazy because it says there never was such a place. But we did get a connection the first time. I can understand if something went down in Sunnydale but it's our own computers that are arguing with us."

Jack O'Neil looked at Sam Carter sitting a few feet away and raised his eyebrows. "Any ideas Carter?" he asked. "And don't use the M word."

Sam Carter looked up from the computer screen in front of her. "It's the same on our system. It doesn't just say the Sunnydale Stargate doesn't exist, it insists it never existed. Of course it did, but the good news is that apart from Sunnydale the Gate network seems to be back to normal. Seems something definitely went down in Sunnydale."

"We knew that something would happen and something seems to have happened there, something involving magic," said Teal'c prompting a loud sigh from Jack O'Neil.

"Yeah but what happened and was it good magic or bad magic?" asked Daniel.

Nobody offered an answer.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Willow blinked. What had just happened she wondered? She had been looking into the hole that led down to the Hellmouth, the hole into which the Stargate had fallen when... When what? She thought some time had passed since she saw something coming up towards her. Something green? Some sort of energy? After that nothing. It was as if she had fallen asleep for a short while and then woken up.

Willow glanced at Tara beside her with a questioning expression. The two of them knew each other well enough to communicate without always using words. Tara shrugged and returned a don't know expression in reply.

By now everybody in the basement was asking variations of the same questions; What's going on? How long did it last? Is everybody alright?

The last question was soon answered. Nobody had been hurt and nobody seemed to be missing. Perhaps more importantly nothing seemed to have come out of the Hellmouth while everybody had been 'turned off'.

But was it possible that something had gotten past them and was now loose in the world? Willow voiced this question out loud but only those nearby took notice amid all the hubbub.

"Another Big Bad to deal with?" said Cordelia in an unworried voice. "Oh no, however will we cope? Do we know anybody who's dealt with a Big Bad before? Or rather do we know anybody who hasn't?"

"It can't be that dangerous otherwise it would have attacked us while we were helpless," said Anya. "If anything got by it can only have been a Little Bad."

"Or a sneaky Big Bad," said Tara with a smile at Willow. "I wouldn't worry Sweetie. We can deal with it if there's anything to deal with. We always have before."

"But what about the Hellmouth?" asked Amy, who had now joined the other witches in their little discussion group. "Where did it go? And what happened to that Stargate? I don't see it anymore."

That was what everybody was asking as they all stared at the ground inside what was still a rough circle of people. The ground was now level and undisturbed. It was as if there had never even been a hole there. The Stargate and the Hellmouth, if they were still there, were now buried under the re-levelled ground.

"So what do we do now," asked Cordelia. "Do we start digging? Or is it better to leave things blocked up like they are now?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Outside the building those watching also began to stir. Maybourne and his soldiers, the three slayers and the Charmed sisters all realised at pretty much the same time that the green glow had disappeared. Maybourne at once began issuing orders:

"Detain those women for questioning" he ordered the officer stood next to him and pointed at the two groups of women. "Colonel Knight, get your men in there. That's an order."

But suddenly the women all vanished. One moment they were there. The next they were not. Or that's how it seemed to the Colonel. What actually happened was that Piper heard what Maybourne had said and had frozen him and those around him. Paige had then orbed the slayers and her sisters inside the building.

"What women Colonel?" asked the lieutenant stood beside him. Nobody else had noticed the disappearance, or if they had they did not admit to it.

Maybourne realised that he would be wasting his time trying to explain. Anyway his control of the army unit was not very certain and he decided not to give the soldiers any reason to think he had lost it. The priority was to get into the building and to get hold of that Stargate.

"They must have gone when we weren't looking," he said. "Come with me." And he walked into the grounds of the building following after where Colonel Knight had already gone. As he did so he heard the sound of approaching helicopters.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"All of the seismic activity seems to have stopped," said Giles. "I wonder if whatever happened has been sufficient to settle everything down."

Giles was talking to one of three groups of people huddled within the basement of the Slayer HQ. Over to one side Lilah Morgan was trying and failing to find out from the Wolfram and Hart people present exactly what had happened and why the Hellmouth had disappeared. Even more importantly why had her plans for an apocalypse coming out of the newly connected Hellmouth apparently vanished without trace?

Another group was the military unit from the SGC who had discovered that their communications had been restored. Captain Dietrich was currently talking to Colonel O'Neill at the SGC to explain what little he knew about what had happened.

"I'll orb up above and see what the Elders know," said Tara who promptly disappeared in the usual shower of lights.

Almost immediately following Tara's disappearance Paige Halliwell orbed in and in the course of the next few minutes the assembled throng were joined by the witch sisters and the slayers. This necessitated a session of comparing notes and bringing everybody up to date which was abruptly ended by Tara's return.

"It seems the unusual spate of earth tremors has stopped everywhere," said Tara, "The Elders think the Hellmouth is connected as planned even though we can't see it."

"And the missing Stargate?" asked Willow. "Do they know what's happened to it?"

Tara shook her head. "Nope, they don't know any more than we do."

"Well if the Hellmouth is still down there underneath us somewhere the Stargate must be down there somewhere as well," said Prue.

"Better not say that too loudly," said Wesley looking at the other two groups in the basement. "We don't want anybody to get the idea that they can dig it up. Things seem to have worked out pretty well if things have settled down without an eruption from this new Hellmouth. We don't want anything to disturb that."

"That's very nice for everybody who hasn't lost their sister," said Buffy bitterly. "I'm gonna get her back and I don't care who or what I have to disturb to do it so you'll pardon me for not agreeing."

A gloomy silence descended on the group and the others in the room also fell silent as they realised that there was still some sort of outstanding problem. Before anybody could break the silence with words of hope and encouragement for Buffy a new Voice joined in.

"Who died? Nobody I hope, or nobody we can't bring back to life one way or another."

Everybody turned to see the newcomer walk out of the otherwise empty shadows on the far side of the room.

"Dawn?" said Buffy. "Is that really you?"


	72. Final Chapter

**Chapter Seventy Two: Final Chapter**

Buffy looked at Tara. "Can you tell? Is it really Dawn or is it something from the Hellmouth trying to fool us?"

"Something!" said Dawn. "I'm not a something, I'm me!"

"I think..." began Tara uncertainly as she stared intently at the new arrival. To her Whitelighter enhanced witch-sight Dawn seemed to be surrounded by a mist of some sort. But as Dawn stood in front of them the mist quickly thinned and disappeared, giving Tara a clear view not just of the young woman stood in front of them but of her individually distinctive aura.

"Yes, I'm sure. It really is Dawn, our Dawn," said Tara with a big smile.

Buffy waited no longer. She stepped forward and embraced her sister. Dawn of course hugged her sister back. A few moments later Buffy stepped back and stared into Dawn's eyes, searching for any indication that there was something wrong.

"Are you alright?" asked Buffy. "Are you yourself? You're not going to be magicked away again by this Key business are you?"

"I'm fine," said Dawn. "I think my connection to the Key's finally over. I don't think I'll be going anywhere again. The Key's done its job and it's shut down again."

"You think?" queried Buffy. "But you don't know?"

"No, I don't know for sure," said Dawn. "You're the one with the prophecy dreams, you and some of the others. Me, I don't even know what I'm gonna have for dinner this evening. But since the Key is only generally active at intervals of several centuries and the current crisis has passed I think we're pretty safe in assuming that everything will remain quiet for a long time to come.

"Do you know what happened to the Hellmouth, the new Hellmouth?" asked Anya. "Is it going to open up and send out lots of new demons to kill us all?"

"Do you know if anything has already gotten out of the Hellmouth?" asked Amy. "And if so what?"

"How did you get back here sweetie?" asked Tara. "Did you come through the Hellmouth yourself?"

Giles held up his hands in an effort to quiet the gathering hubbub. "Perhaps we can all go upstairs and give Dawn a chance to tell us her story without everybody speaking at once," he said. "That is if it's safe to leave this place unguarded," he added with a look at Dawn and a glance down at the floor where the opening to the Hellmouth had been.

"It'll be OK," said Dawn. "Nothing's gonna come out of that Hellmouth now."

"Before we do anything else I think we should show our visitors off the premises. We don't want to give them any information or let them overhear anything," said Faith with a nod towards the Wolfram and Hart gathering. This was still in animated discussion about its own concerns.

Such was the nature of Wolfram and Hart that every one in that group, including most definitely Lilah Morgan, was personally concerned to make sure that no part of the blame for failure fell upon them. From the Wolfram and Hart point of view a plan which had consumed enormous time and resources seemed to have completely failed.

But before Faith could put into practice her intention to evict the unwanted guests Xander came down the stairs into the room.

"Hey Captain," said Xander to the officer in command of the SGC team as he reached the bottom of the staircase. "You'd better go topside. There's a big kerfuffle going on out there between your General Hammond and that Colonel Maybourne."

"Kerfuffle?" said Kennedy. "Is that a word?"

Buffy walked towards Xander. "What exactly is happening..." she began but Xander put his finger to his lips to indicate quiet.

"I'll explain in a minute," he said quietly.

"I'd better go outside and report to the General," said the Captain. "With the Stargate gone there doesn't seem to be any reason for my team to stay here." He signalled to his men and women and they followed him up the stairs.

Buffy watched the military unit depart then turned to Xander with raised eyebrows.

"The Stargate's gone?" asked Xander. "What happened?"

We'll explain all that upstairs," said Buffy. "There's a lot of explaining to do once we've seen the back of Wolfram and Hart. Until they're gone we're not going to discuss anything."

"I'll take care of them," said Wesley who went over to speak to Lilah Morgan.

Eventually everybody was upstairs in the meeting room. Everybody that is except the Wolfram and Hart people and the SGC unit who had now left the premises. Giles had gone outside and spoken briefly to General Hammond and agreed to a meeting two days later to discuss what had happened. Having been assured that all danger was past and there was no longer a Stargate to protect the General had agreed to arrange for the departure of all of the military from Sunnydale including those under the command of Colonel Maybourne.

"I just thought it was a good opportunity to get shot of the military," said Xander. "It was so funny watching that Colonel and his men try to get past Willow's protections. Every time they tried something they got turned around and went the other way, or that's what it looked like. So sending out the General's men to join him means they're locked out as well unless we let them in again. We have our own place to ourselves again."

"Sounds like you've got a really good warding spell on this place," said Phoebe to Willow.

"It must be if it keeps out ordinary humans," said Paige. "A warding spell doesn't generally do that."

"We based it on the way things work for vampires," said Willow with a smile for Tara alongside her which Tara returned. "Anybody can come in, but only if they're properly invited. Otherwise they can huff and puff as much as they like, they won't get in. Not unless we open things up because we want to trap them like we did for a few 'visitors' a while back. If they're not invited they just get messed around until they don't know if they're coming or going."

"But it's better than the vamps," said Tara. "If they're not on the approved list like everybody who's here now they need a new invite every time."

"Anyway, Maybourne and his people were having a lot of fun until the General and his people arrived in helicopters. Like he did last time," said Xander. "He really doesn't like that Colonel Maybourne does he?"

"Nobody likes Colonel Maybourne," said Phoebe remembering back to when she had met the man. "And for good reason."

"OK, that's the soldier boys and Wolfram and Hart taken care of," said Anya. "But what about the Hellmouth? Are we gonna get an invasion of demons up from below to kill us all in our beds one dark night? Is it properly shut down? Does anybody know what's happening?"

"And has anything or anybody got out already while we were all in stasis?" asked Fred nervously.

Dawn looked around the group as they fell silent and looked to her for answers. "OK, this is what happened, or what I know about what happened anyway."

Dawn explained about her appearance on another Kallistien after she had disappeared from their Kallistien. She told them what had happened to her and about the time and space jumps to other wheres and whens and how, with Vala she had finally broken out of the sequence.

"Did you have a picture painted for a book or something?" asked Buffy. "Because we saw a picture of you in this old book. We thought you'd gone back in time and left the picture as a message to us."

"I don't remember that," said Dawn. "If somebody put a picture of me in a book I didn't have anything to do with it."

"But does all this mean you're not the Key after all," asked Willow. "You're just one of the Keepers of the Key?"

"I don't know," said Dawn. "When I was right there in the mix I think I understood all that. I knew all about the Key, what is was for, where it came from what had happened to it. But I don't any more. Right now I'm Dawn and nothing and nobody else. As far as I'm concerned that's the way I want it to stay."

"Anyway after I got back to our Kallistien everything seemed to be working out right. The Key expanded its energy so that the witch planet was protected and hidden from the Goa'uld. The Gate network was being put back in its proper position," continued Dawn. "But there was one problem."

Dawn explained about their Earth being connected to the wrong hell dimension through the new Hellmouth. "I don't know how it happened but somebody or something caused a change, an important change."

"Wolfram and Hart," said Angel. "It must have been."

"Always with the double-cross," said Gunn. "I knew Lilah Morgan was up to something. All that agreement about working together was just another scam."

"But what do you mean a different hell dimension?" asked Xander. "Does it mean we get a better class of Demon? Monsters who wash their tentacles after eating people?"

"It might have meant a merger of the Earth and the hell dimension," said Leo. "There could have been some sort of cosmic imbalance and one or the other or even both could have been destroyed. But even if the Earth survived and the hell dimension was destroyed we would almost certainly have had to deal with a whole host of unfamiliar types of demon invading our world."

"Like Satan," said Dawn. "The demon in charge called himself Satan."

"Satan!" said Anya. "You mean we're linked to Satan's Hell-world. We can't survive that."

"Actually we can, we are," said Dawn. "The link is there, we're still OK and I think we'll stay OK."

"Perhaps you'd better continue your story," said Giles to Dawn.

"When I was in the mix with the Key and the other Keepers I knew a lot more, so sorry if this is all rather incomplete," said Dawn. "Anyway I decided I had to do something so I sort of jumped across to the new Hellmouth as it linked up, don't ask me how."

"Was it you who pulled the Stargate into the Hellmouth?" asked Fred.

"I don't think so," said Dawn. "Or if I did it wasn't deliberate. I think it was just some sort of energy attraction thing. But it was handy for me that it was there. I don't think I could have done what I did without it. The energy it supplied was a uh..."

"A godsend?" suggested Jenny.

Dawn shrugged and looked at the Whitelighter. "You're the angel. You'd know more about that sort of thing than me."

"But what exactly did you do?" asked Kennedy. "Come on. For goodness sake get to the point. What happened?"

Dawn smiled. "What did I do? I put a plug in the Hellmouth to block it up."

"How do you plug a Hellmouth?" asked Faith.

"And how long will the plug stay put?" asked Buffy.

"Buffy, Giles, you remember how the Master was stuck in the original Hellmouth when you first came to Sunnydale?" said Dawn. "He sort of blocked it up like a cork in a bottle."

Giles and Buffy nodded. "Uhuh," said Buffy.

"That's what gave me the idea," said Dawn. "I figured I needed to find somebody powerful like the Master to act as a cork. I thought I'd have to be the cork myself but then I saw Satan on the way to the Hellmouth and I just knew he'd be perfect."

"When you say Satan," began Xander. "Do you mean the actual Satan as in Devil, Beelzebub and so on?"

"There are a lot of Demon Lords who use the name Satan," said Leo. "Or one of the other names for the Devil. They think it makes them more powerful. But of course it doesn't. I'm pretty sure this can't be the original Satan."

"So you explained what you had in mind to this particular Satan and he kindly agreed to act as a cork," said Giles.

"Well not exactly no," said Dawn. "That wasn't what he had in mind. He was gonna come up here and do all sorts of nasty demon things I suppose. I sort of drafted him into becoming the cork. It was all a matter of timing. The Master got trapped because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I just had to distract Satan for long enough to make sure he arrived at just the right place at just the right time and then it all happened."

"The power of the Hellmouth, the power of the Key coming through the Stargate and all that. It just seemed to be the exact right moment," said Dawn. "But don't ask me for more details because I don't have any. It all made sense at the time but I can't explain it any better than that."

"I never really understood how the Master was trapped," said Buffy. "Don't worry about it."

"Can you explain how you ended up on our side of the Hellmouth if you were on the other side with Satan when it was all blocked up?" asked Prue. "Are you able to orb now?"

"I don't know how," said Dawn. "I just wanted to be here and I was here. Something to do with my link to the Key I guess. I don't know about orbing, but I don't think it was the same thing. I just knew how to do it but I can't seem to remember now the Key's shut down again."

"But are you sure, really sure, that nothing got through before the Hellmouth was plugged?" asked Anya.

"Quite sure," said Dawn. "I distracted Satan by talking to him. I tried to get him annoyed with me."

"However did you manage that?" said Buffy sarcastically.

Dawn stuck out her tongue at her sister who smiled back at her. "Anyway I know he hadn't let anything go into the Hellmouth ahead of him. He wanted to be the first through."

"So it's come full circle then," said Giles. "When we first came to Sunnydale the Hellmouth was blocked by a powerful demon. Now we have another Hellmouth blocked up by another powerful demon. Quite neat really."

"Almost as if somebody designed things that way," said Tara quietly to Willow alongside her.

"Somebody like..." asked Willow just as quietly.

Tara shrugged. "I've no idea. But Wolfram and Hart tried to pull a double cross. That might have enabled somebody high up on our side to intervene quietly. Who knows? I'm just guessing. I don't expect we'll ever know."

"So how long will this cork in the bottle stay there?" asked Xander. "I'm thinking big bad Satan is gonna be trying to break through, just like the Master did. Is there some sort of time limit like there was for the Master?"

"He can try but he won't succeed, not for oh, thousands and thousands of years," said Dawn. "One day in the far distant future he might just break out. But if he does it won't do him any good and it won't be a problem for whoever is living here then."

"Why not?" asked Buffy.

"That's where the Stargate comes in handy," said Dawn. "It's something extra that wasn't part of the Hellmouth when the Master was trapped. If Satan eventually breaks free he can only go back the way he came or he has to go through the Stargate. There's no third alternative. The Stargate is now part of the Hellmouth. Anybody opens the Hellmouth they open the Stargate."

"And going through that Stargate would take him where?" asked Buffy.

"Right back to his old hell dimension, although he doesn't know it," laughed Dawn. "But anyway as I said he won't be going anywhere for a very long time. He's a lot more powerful than the Master and that means he makes a much better cork."

"I hope the General appreciates that the Stargate has gone for good," said Xander. "We don't want anybody trying to dig it up."

"That wouldn't be possible anyway," said Dawn. "As it is it's no longer part of our dimension."

"I get the impression from the General that the sooner his world of science and high-tech is completely separated from our world of magic and demons the better he will like it," said Giles. "There's no need for us to tell him about a trapped Demon Lord."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At a meeting two days later at Stargate Command Giles, Buffy and Prue explained to the General and the SG-1 team what had happened. Or rather they gave an edited version of what had happened. To make sure that neither the SGC nor anybody else decided to come looking for the Sunnydale Stargate they explained that it had been destroyed and no longer existed, which for all practical purposes is what had happened. The SGC accepted this since all their computers told them that there was no longer any such Stargate.

Buffy insisted that Dawn and her abilities and connections not be mentioned at all so the explanation was somewhat different to the actual events. The SG people realised that the explanation was not complete but they wanted to minimise or avoid references to magic, witches and demons in their reports so they did not press. All concerned agreed to go their separate ways unless the SGC encountered something that seemed to be in the domain of the magic users or vice versa.

"What about the witches who were captured by the Goa'uld?" asked Prue. "Don't you need help to get them free or to fight them if they're now working for the other side?"

"Hopefully not," said Sam Carter. "We have received information that they've freed themselves and are on the way back here in a captured Goa'uld ship."

"Well give us a call when you know their arrival time. We'll standby in case the Goa'uld are trying to pull a Trojan Horse on you," said Prue. "That is if you want our help?"

"We've already taken precautions with that in mind," said General Hammond. "But your assistance would of course be very welcome just in case."

In the event the return of the captured witches went off smoothly, without the need to deal with any sort of Goa'uld plot. The biggest headache for the SG people was making sure that the returned witches did not reveal the secret of the Stargate programme.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"OK grandma," said Dawn to the elderly woman sitting at the table across from her in the cafe. "That's the whole story as far as I can remember it. Now perhaps you can tell me what all this has to do with the Guardians."

"You must have felt us and our connection to you when you needed help?" said Grandma. "I definitely had reports from a number of places while you were away."

"That was you guys?" asked Dawn. "You really did help me to keep separate from the Key and all the others?"

"We didn't know exactly what was going on," said Grandma. "But we know you needed help and we used our own power sources to provide it."

"But I thought the Guardians were meant to help the Slayer," said Dawn. "I'm not a Slayer, or at least not any more."

"But you are a Guardian," said Grandma. "And we help our own. How could we do any good if we didn't stick together? But I'm astonished to hear that we were able to hear you and reach you so far away."

"Good job you did," said Dawn. "I hope you never need to do something like that again."

"I'm sure we won't," said Grandma. "I expect the next Apocalypse will be much worse."

For an instant Dawn became very worried, but then she saw that her Grandmother was smiling.

"But even if it is I'm sure we'll rally round and deal with it," said Grandma. "But for now how are you getting on back at school..."

The End


End file.
